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ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


IN 


ROMAN PAGANISM 








The Oriental Religions in 
Roman Paganism 


By 


Franz Cumont 


With an Introductory Essay by 


Grant Showerman 


Authorized Translation 


Chicago 
The Open Court Publishing Company 


London Agents 
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. 


IQII 


COPYRIGHT BY 


THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO. 
191I 


TO MY TEACHER AND FRIEND 
CHARLES MICHEL 





TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION.—The Significance of Franz Cumont’s Work, 


VST Ate OUOWET Mall ot eot su See eee haere Cn: 
PRD WARE airs cies, ore cans Pb nh cea is engin, Weegee iynedeebir es brava to MED ees a 
PREFACE; TO THE SECOND EDITION oyu. ook he Ooo eee bs 

]) ROME AND-THE ORIENT (2.00.0. bes we Sparc Lay f 


If 


Ill. 


IV. 


Superiority of the Orient, 1.—Its Influence on Political 
Institutions, 3.—Its Influence on Civil Law, 5.—Its In- 
fluence on Science, 6.—Its Influence on Literature and 
Art, 7.—Its Influence on Industry, 9.—Sources: Destruction 
of Pagan Rituals, 11.—Mythographers, 12.—Historians, 13. 
—Satirists, 13.—Philosophers, 14.—Christian Polemicists, 
15.—Archeological Documents, 16. 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD ......... 
Difference in the Religions of the Orient and the Occident, 
20.—Spread of Oriental Religions, 22.—Economic Influ- 
ences, 23.—Theory of Degeneration, 25.—Conversions are 
of Individuals, 27.—Appeal of the Oriental Religions to 
the Senses, 28.—Appeal to the Intelligence, 31.—Appeal to 
the Conscience, 35.—Inadequacy of the Roman Religion, 
35.—Skepticism, 37.—Imperial Power, 38.—The Purification 
of Souls, 39.—Hope of Immortality, 42.—Conclusion, 43. 


ASIAAMENOR hed dac.ieune we sabe ad ciue aticaiihs Steeikede ae 
Arrival of Cybele at Rome, 46.—Her Religion in Asia 
Minor, 47.—Religion at Rome under the Republic, 51.— 
Adoption of the Goddess Ma-Bellona, 53.—Politics of Clau- 
dius, 55.—Spring Festival, 56.—Spread of the Phrygian 
Religion in the Provinces, 57.—Causes of Its Success, 58.— 
Its Official Recognition, 60.—ARRIVAL oF OTHER CULTS: 
Mén, 61.—Judaism, 63.—Sabazius, 64.—Anahita, 65.—The 
Taurobolium, 66.—Philosophy, 70.—Christianity, 70.—Con- 
clusion, 71. 


REGNUM yaa Riis Garg alee n Sac Wig ew eet we sf ete 
Foundation of Serapis Worship, 73.—The Egyptian Religion 
Hellenized, 75.—Diffusion in Greece, 79.—Adoption at 
Rome, 80.—Persecutions, 82.—Adoption Under Caligula, 84. 
—Its History, 85.—Its Transformation, 86.—Uncertainty in 
Egyptian Theology, 87.—Insufficiency of Its Ethics, 90.— 
Power of Its Ritual, 93.—Daily Liturgy, 95.—Festivals, 97. 


—Doctrine of Immortality, 99.—The Refrigerium, 101. 


PAGE 


20 


46 


73 


V. 


VI. 


Vib 


VIII. 


Notes 


INDEX 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


SV RTA Ne oa ee NP eeeesd Pe) Seah Tere Pa Te Ie reas rit 
The Syrian Goddess, 103.—Importation of New Gods by 
Syrian Slaves, 105.—Syrian Merchants, 107.—Syrian Sol- 
diers, 112.—Heliogabalus and Aurelian, 114.—Value of Sem- 
itic Paganism, 115.—Animal Worship, 116.—Baals, 118.— 
Human Sacrifice, 119.—Transformation of the Sacerdotal 
Religion, 120.—Purity, 121.—Influence of Babylon, 122.— 
Eschatology, 125.—THEoLocy: God is Supreme, 127.—God 
is Omnipotent, 129.—God is Eternal and Universal, 130.— 
Semitic Syncretism, 131.—Solar Henotheism, 133. 


PERSTA OS, ar 4 fear ace wetianie ao ate iran aie accra aie 
Persia and Europe, 135.—Influence of the Achemenides, 136. 
—Influence of Mazdaism, 138.—Conquests of Rome, 139.— 
Influence of the Sassanides, 140.—Origin of the Mysteries 
of Mithra, 142.—Persians in Asia Minor, 144.—The Maz- 
daism of Anatolia, 146.—Its Diffusion in the Occident, 149. 
—Its Qualities, 150.—Dualism, 151.—The Ethics of Mithra- 
ism, 155.—IThe Future Life, 158.—Conclusion, 159. 


ASTROLOGY) AND) MAGIC Haken aie n eka clears eee le 
Prestige of Astrology, 162.—Its Introduction in the Occi- 
dent, 163.—Astrology Under the Empire, 164.—Polemics 
Powerless Against Astrology, 166.—Astrology a Scientific 
Religion, 169.—The Primitive Idea of Sympathy, 171.— 
Divinity of the Stars, 172.—Transformation of the Idea of 
God, 174.—-New Gods, 175.—Big Years, 176.—Astrological 
Eschatology, 177.—Man’s Relation to Heaven, 178.—Fatal- 
ism, 179.—Efficacy of Prayer, 180.—Efficacy of Magic, 182. 
Treatises on Magic, 182.—Idea of Sympathy, 183.—Magic 
a Science, 184.—Magic is Religious, 185.—Ancient Italian 
Sorcery, 186.—Egypt and Chaldea, 187.—Theurgy, 188.— 
Persian Magic, 189.—Persecutions, 191.—Conclusion, 193. 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM .... 
Paganism Before Constantine, 196.—Religion of Asia Minor, 
197.—Religion of Egypt and Syria, 198.—Religion of Persia, 
199.—Many Pagan Religions, 200.—Popular Religion and 
Philosophy, 201.—Christian Polemics, 202.—Roman Pagan- 
ism Become Oriental, 204.—Mysteries, 205.—Nature Wor- 
ship, 206.—Supreme God, 207.—Sidereal Worship, 208.— 
The Ritual Given a Moral Significance, 209.—The End of 
the World, 209.—Conclusion, 210. 


eo ee ee eee eevee eee ec eee eet Mee eee eee eee rere eseeee eevee 


Preface, 213.—I. Rome and the Orient, 214.—II. Why the 
Oriental Religions Spread, 218.—III. Asia Minor, 223.— 
IV. Egypt, 228.—V. Syria, 241.—VI. Persia, 260.—VII. As- 
trology and Magic, 270.—VIII. The Transformation of 
Paganism, 281. 


FO Oe 9, O'S C.D O16 C'S 8 OD 6:6 C9 BG 0 FF Te Of CPS Oe Ss 8 2 6. C108 Pee ee 8 oS 


135 


162 


213 


289 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FRANZ CUMONT’S WORK. 


RANZ CUMONT, born January 3, 1868, and 
educated at Ghent, Bonn, Berlin, and Paris, re- 
sides in Brussels, and has been Professor in the Uni- 
versity of Ghent since 1892. His monumental work, 
Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystéres de 
Mithra, published in 1896 and 1899 in two volumes, 
was followed in 1902 by the separate publication, under 
the title Les Mystéres de Mithra, of the second half 
of Vol. I, the Conclusions in which he interpreted the 
great mass of evidence contained in the remainder of 
the work. The year following, this book appeared in 
the translation of Thomas J. McCormack as The Mys- 
teries of Mithra, published by the Open Court Pub- 
lishing Company. M. Cumont’s other work of prime 
interest to students of the ancient faiths, Les religions 
orientales dans le paganisme romain, appeared in 1906, 
was revised and issued in a second edition in 1909, 
and is now presented in English in the following pages. 
M. Cumont is an ideal contributor to knowledge in 
his chosen field. As an investigator, he combines in 
one person Teutonic thoroughness and Gallic intuition. 
As a writer, his virtues are no less pronounced. Rec- 
ognition of his mastery of an enormous array of de- 
tailed learning followed immediately on the publication 


vi THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of Textes et monuments, and the present series of 
essays, besides a numerous series of articles and mono- 
graphs, makes manifest the same painstaking and thor- 
ough scholarship; but he is something more than the 
mere savant who has at command a vast and difficult 
body of knowledge. He is also the literary architect 
who builds up his material into well-ordered and grace- 
ful structure. 

Above all, M. Cumont is an interpreter. In The 
Mysteries of Mithra he put into circulation, so to speak, 
the coin of the ideas he had minted in the patient and 
careful study of Textes et Monuments; and in the 
studies of The Oriental Religions he is giving to the 
wider public the interpretation of the larger and more 
comprehensive body of knowledge of which his ac- 
quaintance with the religion of Mithra is only a part, 
and against which as a background it stands. What 
his book The Mysteries of Mithra is to his special 
knowledge of Mithraism, The Oriental Religions is to 
his knowledge of the whole field. He is thus an ex- 
ample of the highest type of scholar—the exhaustive 
searcher after evidence, and the sympathetic interpreter 
who mediates between his subject and the lay intellec- _ 
tual life of his time. 

And yet, admirable as is M. Cumont’s presentation 
in The Mysteries of Mithra and The Oriental Religions, 
nothing is a greater mistake than to suppose that his 
popularizations are facile reading. The few specialists 
in ancient religions may indeed sail smoothly in the 
current of his thought; but the very nature of a subject 
which ramifies so extensively and so intricately into 
the whole of ancient life, concerning itself with prac- 
tically all the manifestations of ancient civilization— 


INTRODUCTION. Vil 


philosophy, religion, astrology, magic, mythology, lit- 
erature, art, war, commerce, government—will of ne- 
cessity afford some obstacle to readers unfamiliar with 
the study of religion. 

It is in the hope of lessening somewhat this natural 
difficulty of assimilating M. Cumont’s contribution to 
knowledge, and above all, to life, that these brief words 
of introduction are undertaken. The presentation in 
outline of the main lines of thought which underlie his 
conception of the importance of the Oriental religions 
in universal history may afford the uninitiated reader 
a background against which the author’s depiction of 
the various cults of the Oriental group will be more 
easily and clearly seen. 

M. Cumont’s work, then, transports us in imagina- 
tion to a time when Christianity was still—at least in 
the eyes of Roman pagans—only one of a numerous 
array of foreign Eastern religions struggling for rec- 
ognition in the Roman world, and especially in the 
city of Rome. To understand the conditions under 
which the new faith finally triumphed, we should first 
realize the number of these religions, and the appar- 
_ ently chaotic condition of paganism when viewed as a 
system. 

“Let us suppose,” says M. Cumont, “that in modern 
Europe the faithful had deserted the Christian churches 
to worship Allah or Brahma, to follow the precepts 
of Confucius or Buddha, or to adopt the maxims of 
the Shinto; let us imagine a great confusion of all the 
races of the world in which Arabian mullahs, Chinese 
scholars, Japanese bonzes, Tibetan lamas and Hindu 
pundits should all be preaching fatalism and predesti- 


Vill THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


nation, ancestor-worship and devotion to a deified sov- 
ereign, pessimism and deliverance through annihila- 
tion—a confusion in which all those priests should 
erect temples of exotic architecture in our cities and 
celebrate their disparate rites therein. Such a dream, 
which the future may perhaps realize, would offer a 
pretty accurate picture of the religious chaos in which 
the ancient world was struggling before the reign of 
Constantine.” 

But it is no less necessary to realize, in the second 
place, that, had there not been an essential solidarity 
of all these different faiths, the triumph of Christian- 
ity would have been achieved with much less difficulty 
and in much less time. We are not to suppose that 
religions are long-lived and tenacious unless they pos- 
sess something vital which enables them to resist. In 
his chapter on “The Transformation of Roman Pagan- 
ism,” M. Cumont thus accounts for the vitality of the 
old faiths: “The mass of religions at Rome finally 
became so impregnated by neo-Platonism and Orien- 
talism that paganism may be called a single religion 
with a fairly distinct theology, whose doctrines were 
somewhat as follows: adoration of the elements, espe- 
cially the cosmic bodies; the reign of one God, eternal 
and omnipotent, with messenger attendants; spiritual 
interpretation of the gross rites yet surviving from 
primitive times; assurance of eternal felicity to the 
faithful ; belief that the soul was on earth to be proved 
before its final return to the universal spirit, of which 
it was a spark; the existence of an abysmal abode for 
the evil, against whom the faithful must keep up an 
unceasing struggle; the destruction of the universe, 


INTRODUCTION. ix 


the death of the wicked, and the eternal happiness of 
the good in a reconstructed world.’’* 

If this formulation of pagan doctrine surprises those 
who have been told that paganism was “a fashion 
rather than a faith,’ and are accustomed to think of it 
in terms of Jupiter and Juno, Venus and Mars, and 
the other empty, cold, and formalized deities that have 
so long filled literature and art, it will be because they 
have failed to take into account that between Augustus 
and Constantine three hundred years elapsed, and are 
unfamiliar with the very natural fact that during all 
that long period the character of paganism was grad- 
ually undergoing change and growth. “The faith of 
the friends of Symmachus,”’ M. Cumont tells us, “was 
much farther removed from the religious ideal of 
Augustus, although they would never have admitted 
it, than that of their opponents in the senate.” 

To what was due this change in the content of the 
pagan ideal, so great that the phraseology in which the 
ideal is described puts us in mind of Christian doctrine 
itself? First, answers M. Cumont, to neo-Platonism, 
which attempted the reconciliation of the antiquated 
religions with the advanced moral and intellectual ideas 
of its own time by spiritual interpretation of out- 
grown cult stories and cult practices. A second and 
more vital cause, however, wrought to bring about the 
same result. This was the invasion of the Oriental 
religions, and the slow working, from the advent of 
the Great Mother of the Gods in B. C. 204 to the 
downfall of paganism at the end of the fourth cen- 


* This summary of M. Cumont’s chapter is quoted from my 
review of the first edition of Les religions orientales in Clas- 
sical Philology, III, 4, p. 467. 


x THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


tury of the Christian era, of the leaven of Oriental 
sentiment. The cults of Asia and Egypt bridged the 
gap between the old religions and Christianity, and in 
such a way as to make the triumph of Christianity 
an evolution, not a revolution. The Great Mother 
and Attis, with self-consecration, enthusiasm, and as- 
ceticism; Isis and Serapis, with the ideals of com- 
munion and purification; Baal, the omnipotent dweller 
in the far-off heavens; Jehovah, the jealous God of 
the Hebrews, omniscient and omnipresent; Mithra, 
deity of the sun, with the Persian dualism of good and 
evil, and with after-death rewards and punishments— 
all these, and more, flowed successively into the chan- 
nel of Roman life and mingled their waters to form 
the late Roman paganism which proved so pertinacious 
a foe to the Christian religion. The influence that 
underlay their pretensions was so real that there is 
some warrant for the view of Renan that at one time 
it was doubtful whether the current as it flowed away 
into the Dark Ages should be Mithraic or Christian. 
The vitalization of the evidence regarding these cults 
is M. Cumont’s great contribution. His perseverance 
in the accurate collection of material is equalled only 
by his power to see the real nature and effect of the 
religions of which he writes. Assuming that no re- 
ligion can succeed merely because of externals, but 
must stand on some foundation of moral excellence, 
he shows how the pagan faiths were able to hold their 
own, and even to contest the ground with Christian- 
ity. These religions, he asserts, gave greater satis- 
faction first, to the senses and passions, secondly, to 
the intelligence, finally, and above all, to the conscience. 
“The spread of the Oriental religions”—again I quote 


INTRODUCTION. X1 


a summary from Classical Philology — “was due to 
merit. In contrast to the cold and formal religions of 
Rome, the Oriental faiths, with their hoary traditions 
and basis of science and culture, their fine ceremonial, 
the excitement attendant on their mysteries, their dei- 
ties with hearts of compassion, their cultivation of the 
social bond, their appeal to conscience and their prom- 
ises of purification and reward in a future life, were 
personal rather than civic, and satisfied the individual 
soul.... With such a conception of latter-day paganism, 
we nay more easily understand its strength and the 
bitter rivalry between it and the new faith, as well as 
the facility with which pagan society, once its cause 
was proved hopeless, turned to Christianity.” The 
Oriental religions had made straight the way. Chris- 
-tianity triumphed after long conflict because its antag- , 
onists also were not without weapons from the armory 
of God. Both parties to the struggle had their loins 
girt about with truth, and both wielded the sword of 
the spirit; but the steel of the Christian was the more 
piercing, the breastplate of his righteousness was the 
stronger, and his feet were better shod with the prepa- 
ration of the gospel of peace. 

Nor did Christianity stop there. It took from its 
opponents their own weapons, and used them; the 
better elements of paganism were transferred to the 
new religion. “As the religious history of the empire 
is studied more closely,’’ writes M. Cumont, “the tri- 
umph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more: 
and more as the culmination of a long evolution of 
beliefs, We can understand the Christianity of the 
fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses, its 
spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we 


Xi THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


know the moral antecedents of the world in which it 
developed ” 

M. Cumont is therefore a contributor to our appre- 
ciation of the continuity of history. Christianity was 
not a sudden and miraculous transformation, but a 
composite of slow and laborious growth. Its four 
centuries of struggle were not a struggle against an 
entirely unworthy religion, else would our faith in its 
divine warrant be diminished; it is to its own great 
credit, and also to the credit of the opponents that suc- 
cumbed to it, that it finally overwhelmed them. To 
quote Emil Aust: “Christianity did not wake into be- 
ing the religious sense, but it afforded that sense the 
fullest opportunity of being satisfied; and paganism 
fell because the less perfect must give place to the more 
perfect, not because it was sunken in sin and vice. It 
had out of its own strength laid out the ways by which 
it advanced to lose itself in the arms of Christianity, 
and to recognize this does not mean to minimize the 
significance of Christianity. We are under no neces- 
sity of artificially darkening the heathen world; the 
light of the Evangel streams into it brightly enough 
without this.’’* 

Finally, the work of M. Cumont and others in the 
field of the ancient Oriental religions is not an isolated 
activity, but part of a larger intellectual movement. 
Their effort is only one manifestation of the interest 
of recent years in the study of universal religion ; other 
manifestations of the same interest are to be seen in 
the histories of the Greek and Roman religions by 

* Die Religion der Rémer, p. 116. For the significance of the 
pagan faiths, see an essay on “The Ancient Religions in Uni- 


yer History,” American Journal of Philology, XXIX, 2, Dp. 
156-171. 


INTRODUCTION. Xill 


Gruppe, Farnell, and Wissowa, in the anthropological 
labors of Tylor, Lang, and Frazer, in the publication 
of Reinach’s Orpheus, in the study of comparative re- 
ligion, and in such a phenomenon as a World’s Parlia- 
ment of Religions. 

In a word, M. Cumont and his companion ancient 
Orientalists are but one brigade engaged in the mod- 
ern campaign for the liberation of religious thought. 
His studies are therefore not concerned alone with 
paganism, nor alone with the religions of the ancient 
past; in common with the labors of students of mod- 
ern religion, they touch our own faith and our own 
times, and are in vital relation with our philosophy of 
living, and consequently with our highest welfare. “To 
us moderns,” says Professor Frazer in the preface to 
his Golden Bough, “a still wider vista is vouchsafed, 
a greater panorama is unrolled by the study which aims 
at bringing home to us the faith and the practice, the 
hopes and the ideals, not of two highly gifted races 
only, but of all mankind, and thus at enabling us to 
follow the long march, the slow and toilsome ascent, 
of humanity from savagery to civilization....But the 
comparative study of the beliefs and institutions of 
mankind is fitted to be much more than a means of 
satisfying an enlightened curiosity and of furnishing 
materials for the researches of the learned. Well 
handled, it may become a powerful instrument to ex- 
pedite progress....” 

It is possible that all this might disquiet the minds 
of those who have been wont to assume perfection in 
the primitive Christian church, and who assume also 
that present-day Christianity is the ultimate form of 
the Christian religion. Such persons—if there are 


X1V THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


such—should rather take heart from the whole-souled 
devotion to truth everywhere to be seen in the works 
of scholars in ancient religion, and from their equally 
evident sympathy with all manifestations of human 
effort to establish the divine relation; but most of all 
from their universal testimony that for all time and in 
all places and under all ¢onditions the human heart 
has felt powerfully the need of the divine relation. 
From the knowledge that the desire to get right with 
God—the common and essential element in all religions 
—has been the most universal and the most potent and 
persistent factor in past history, it is not far to the 
conviction that it will always continue to be so, and 
that the struggle toward the divine light of religion 
pure and undefiled will never perish from the earth. 


GRANT SHOWERMAN. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 


PREFACE. 


N November, 1905, the Collége de France honored 

the writer by asking him to succeed M. Naville in 
opening the series of lectures instituted by the Michonis 
foundation. A few months later the “Hibbert Trust’ 
invited him to Oxford to develop certain subjects which 
he had touched upon at Paris. In this volume have 
been collected the contents of both series with the addi- 
tion of a short bibliography and notes intended for 
scholars desirous of verifying assertions made in the 
text.t The form of the work has scarcely been changed, 
but we trust that these pages, intended though they 
were for oral delivery, will bear reading, and that the 
title of these studies will not seem too ambitious for 
what they have to offer. The propagation of the 
Oriental religions, with the development of neo-Plato- 
nism, is the leading fact in the moral history of the 
pagan empire. May this small volume on a great sub- 
ject throw at least some light upon this truth, and may 
the reader receive these essays with the same kind 
interest shown by the audiences at Paris and Oxford. 

The reader will please remember that the different 
chapters were thought out and written as lectures. They 
do not claim to contain a debit and credit account of 
what the Latin paganism borrowed from or loaned to 
the Orient. Certain well-known facts have been de- 


Xv1 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


liberately passed over in order to make room for others 
that are perhaps less known. We have taken liberties 
with our subject matter that would not be tolerated in 
a didactic treatise, but to which surely no one will 
object. 

We are more likely to be reproached for an appar- 
ently serious omission. We have investigated only the 
internal development of paganism in the Latin world, 
and have considered its relation to Christianity only 
incidentally and by the way. The question is never- 
theless important and has been the subject of cele- 
brated lectures as well as of learned monographs and 
widely distributed manuals.?, We wish to slight neither 
the interest nor the importance of that controversy, and 
it is not because it seemed negligible that we have not 
entered into it. 

By reason of their intellectual bent and education 
the theologians were for a long time more inclined to 
consider the continuity of the Jewish tradition than the 
causes that disturbed it; but a reaction has taken place, 
and to-day they endeavor to show that the church has 
borrowed considerably from the conceptions and ritual- 
istic ceremonies of the pagan mysteries. In spite of 
the prestige that surrounded Eleusis, the word “mys- 
teries” calls up Hellenized Asia rather than Greece 
proper, because in the first place the earliest Christian 
communities were founded, formed and developed in 
the heart of Oriental populations, Semites, Phrygians 
and Egyptians. Moreover the religions of those people 
were much farther advanced, much richer in ideas and 
sentiments, more striking and stirring than the Greco- 
Latin anthropomorphism. Their liturgy always de- 
rives its inspiration from generally accepted beliefs 


PREFACE. XVil 


about purification embodied in certain acts regarded as 
sanctifying. These facts were almost identical in the 
various sects. The new faith poured its revelation into 
the hallowed moulds of earlier religions because in 
that form alone could the world in wach it developed 
receive its message. 

This is approximately the point of view adopted by 
the latest historians. 

But, however absorbing this important problem may 
be, we could not think of going into it, even briefly, 
in these studies on Roman paganism. In the Latin 
world the question assumes much more modest pro- 
portions, and its aspect changes completely. Here 
Christianity spread only after it had outgrown the em- 
bryonic state and really became established. ~ Moreover 
like Christianity the Oriental mysteries at Rome re- 
mained for a long time chiefly the religion of a foreign 
minority. Did any exchange take place between these 
rival sects? The silence of the ecclesiastical writers 
is not sufficient reason for denying it. We dislike to 
acknowledge a debt to our adversaries, because it means 
that we recognize some value in the cause they defend, 
but I believe that the importance of these exchanges 
should not be exaggerated. Without a doubt certain 
ceremonies and holidays of the church were based on 
pagan models. In the fourth century Christmas was _ 
placed on the 25th of December because on that date 
was celebrated the birth of the sun (Natalis Invicii) 
who was born to a new life each year after the solstice.3 
Certain vestiges of the religions of Isis and Cybele be- 
sides other polytheistic practices perpetuated them- 
selves in the adoration of local saints. On the other 
hand as soon as Christianity became a moral power in 


XVill THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the world, it imposed itself even on its enemies. The 
Phrygian priests of the Great Mother openly opposed 
their celebration of the vernal equinox to the Christian 
Easter, and attributed to the blood shed in the tauro- 
bolium the redemptive power of the blood of the divine 
Lamb.4 

All these facts constitute a series of very delicate 
problems of chronology and interrelation, and it would 
be rash to attempt to solve them en bloc. Probably 
there is a different answer in each particular case, and 
I am afraid that some cases must always remain un- 
solved. We may speak of “vespers of Isis” or of a 
“eucharist of Mithra and his companions,” but only 
in the same sense as when we.-say “the vassal princes 
of the empire’’ or “Diocletian’s socialism.” These are 
tricks of style used to give prominence to a similarity 
and to establish a parallel strongly and closely. A 
word is not a demonstration, and we must be careful 
not to infer an influence from an analogy. Precon- 
ceived notions are always the most serious obstacles 
to an exact knowledge of the past. Some modern 
writers, like the ancient Church Fathers, are fain to 
see a sacrilegious parody inspired by the spirit of lies 
in the resemblance between the mysteries and the 
church ceremonies. Other historians seem disposed 
to agree with the Oriental priests, who claimed priority 
for their cults at Rome, and saw a plagiarism of their 
ancient rituals in the Christian ceremonies. It would 
appear that both are very much mistaken. Resem- 
blance does not necessarily presuppose imitation, and 
frequently a similarity of ideas and practices must be 
explained by common origin, exclusive of any borrow- 


ing. 


PREFACE, X1X 


An illustration will make my thought clearer. The 
votaries of Mithra likened the practice of their religion 
to military service. When the neophyte joined he was 
compelled to take an oath (sacramentum) similar to 
the one required of recruits in the army, and there is no 
doubt that an indelible mark was likewise branded on 
his body with a hot iron. The third degree of the mys- 
tical hierarchy was that of “soldier” (miles). Thence- 
forward the initiate belonged to the sacred militia of 
the invincible god and fought the powers of evil under 
his orders. All these ideas and institutions are so much 
in accord with what we know of Mazdean dualism, in 
which the entire life was conceived as a struggle against 
the malevolent spirits; they are so inseparable from the 
history even of Mithraism, which always was a sol- 
diers’ religion, that we cannot doubt they belonged 
to it before its appearance in the Occident. 

On the other hand, we find similar conceptions in 
Christianity. The society of the faithful—the term is 
still in use—is the “Church Militant.” During the 
first centuries the comparison of the church with an 
army was carried out even in details ;5 the baptism of 
the neophyte was the oath of fidelity to the flag taken 
by the recruits. Christ was the “emperor,” the com- 
mander-in-chief, of his disciples, who formed cohorts 
triumphing under his command over the demons; the 
apostates were deserters; the sanctuaries, camps; the 
pious practices, drills and sentry-duty, and so on. 

If we consider that the gospel preached peace, that 
for a long time the Christians felt a repugnance to 
military service, where their faith was threatened, we 
are tempted to admit a priori an influence of the 
belligerent cult of Mithra upon Christian thought. 


XX THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


But this is not the case. The theme of the militia 
Christi appears in the oldest ecclesiastical authors, in 
the epistles of St. Clement and even in those of St. 
Paul. It is impossible to admit an imitation of the 
Mithraic mysteries then, because at that period they 
had no importance whatever. 

But if we extend our researches to the history of 
that notion, we shall find that, at least under the em- 
pire, the mystics of Isis were also regarded as forming 
sacred cohorts enlisted in the service of the goddess, 
that previously in the Stoic philosophy human exist- 
ence was frequently likened to a campaign, and that 
even the astrologers called the man who submitted to 
destiny and renounced all revolt a “soldier of fate.”® 

This conception of life, especially of religious life, 
was therefore very popular from the beginning of our 
era. It was manifestly prior both to Christianity and 
to Mithraism. It developed in the military monarchies 
of the Asiatic Diadochi. Here the soldier was no 
longer a citizen defending- his country, but in most 
instances a volunteer bound by a sacred vow to the 
person of his king. In the martial states that fought 
for the heritage of the Achemenides this personal de- 
votion dominated or displaced all national feeling. We 
know the oaths taken by those subjects to their deified 
kings.7. They agreed to defend and uphold them even 
at the cost of their own lives, and always to have the 
same friends and the same enemies as they ; they dedi- 
cated to them not only their actions and words, but 
their very thoughts. Their duty was a complete aban- 
donment of their personality in favor of those monarchs 
who were held the equals of the gods. The sacred 
militia of the mysteries was nothing but this civic 


PREFACE. XX 


morality viewed from the religious standpoint. It con- 
founded loyalty with piety. 

As we see, the researches into the doctrines or prac- 
tices common to Christianity and the Oriental mys- 
teries lead almost always beyond the limits of the 
Roman empire into the Hellenistic Orient. The re- 
ligious conceptions which imposed themselves on Latin 
Europe under the Czsars® were developed there, and 
it is there we must look for the key to enigmas still 
unsolved. It is true that at present nothing is more 
obscure than the history of the religions that arose in 
Asia when Greek culture came in contact with bar- 
barian theology. It is rarely possible to formulate satis- 
factory conclusions with any degree of certainty, and 
before further discoveries are made we shall frequently 
be compelled to weigh contrasting probabilities. We 
must frequently throw out the sounding line into the 
shifting sea of possibility in order to find secure anchor- 
age. But at any rate we perceive with sufficient dis- 
tinctness the direction in which the investigations must 
be pursued. 

It is our belief that the main point to be cleared 
up is the composite religion of those Jewish or Jewish- 
pagan communities, the worshipers of Hypsistos, the 
Sabbatists, the Sabaziasts and others in which the new 
creed took root during the apostolic age. In those 
communities the Mosaic law had become adapted to 
the sacred usages of the Gentiles even before the be- 
ginning of our era, and monotheism had made con- 
cessions to idolatry. Many beliefs of the ancient Orient, 
as for instance the ideas of Persian dualism regarding 
the infernal world, arrived in Europe by two roads, the 
more or less orthodox Judaism of the communities of 


XXil THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the dispersion in which the gospel was accepted imme- 
diately, and the pagan mysteries imported from Syria 
or Asia Minor. Certain similarities that surprised and 
shocked the apologists will cease to look strange as soon 
as we reach the distant sources of the channels that 
reunited at Rome. 

But these delicate and complicated researches into 
origins and relationships belong especially to the his- 
tory of the Alexandrian period. In considering the 
Roman empire, the principal fact is that the Oriental 
religions propagated doctrines, previous to and later 
side by side with Christianity, that acquired with it 
universal authority at the decline of the ancient world. 
The preaching of the Asiatic priests also unwittingly 
prepared for the triumph of the church which put its 
stamp on the work at which they had unconsciously 
labored. 

Through their popular propaganda they had com- 
pletely disintegrated the ancient national faith of the 
Romans, while at the same time the Cesars had grad- 
ually destroyed the political particularism. After their 
advent it was no longer necessary for religion to be 
connected with a state in order to become universal. 
Religion was no longer regarded as a public duty, but 
as a personal obligation; no longer did it subordinate 
the individual to the city-state, but pretended above all 
to assure his welfare in this world and especially in the 
world to come. The Oriental mysteries offered their 
votaries radiant perspectives of eternal happiness. Thus 
the focus of morality was changed. The aim became 
to realize the sovereign good in the life hereafter in- 
stead of in this world, as the Greek philosophy had 
done. No longer did man act in view of tangible real- 


PREFACE. XXill 


ities, but to attain ideal hopes. Existence in this life 
was regarded as a preparation for a sanctified life, as 
a trial whose outcome was to be either everlasting 
happiness or everlasting pain. 

As we see, the entire system of ethical values was 
overturned. 

The salvation of the soul, which had become the one 
great human care, was especially promised in these 
mysteries upon the accurate performance of the sacred 
ceremonies. The rites possessed a power of purifica- 
tion and redemption. They made man better and freed 
him from the dominion of hostile spirits. Consequently, 
religion was a singularly important and absorbing 
matter, and the liturgy could be performed only by a 
clergy devoting itself entirely to the task. The Asiatic 
gods exacted undivided service; their priests were no 
longer magistrates, scarcely citizens. They devoted 
themselves unreservedly to their ministry, and de- 
manded of their adherents submission to their sacred 
authority. 

All these features that we are but sketching here, 
gave the Oriental religions a resemblance to Chris- 
tianity, and the reader of these studies will find many 
more points in common among them. These analogies 
are even more striking to us than they were in those 
times because we have become acquainted in India and 
China with religions very different from the Roman 
paganism and from Christianity as well, and because 
the relationships of the two latter strike us more 
strongly on account of the contrast. These theological 
similarities did not attract the attention of the ancients, 
because they scarcely conceived of the existence of 
other possibilities, while differences were what they 


XX1V THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


remarked especially. I am not at all forgetting how 
considerable these were. The principal divergence 
was that Christianity, by placing God in an ideal sphere 
beyond the confines of this world, endeavored to rid 
itself of every attachment to a frequently abject poly- 
theism. But even if we oppose tradition, we cannot 
break with the past that has formed us, nor separate 
ourselves from the present in which we live. As the 
religious history of the empire is studied more closely, 
the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear 
more and more as the culmination of a long evolution 
of beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the 
fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses, its 
spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we 
know the moral antecedents of the world in which it 
developed. The faith of the friends of Symmachus 
was much farther removed from the religious ideal of 
Augustus, although they would never have admitted 
it, than that of their opponents in the senate. I hope 
that these studies will succeed in showing how the 
pagan religions from the Orient aided the long con- 
tinued effort of Roman society, contented for many 
centuries with a rather insipid idolatry, toward more 
elevated and more profound forms of worship. Pos- 
sibly their credulous mysticism deserves as much blame 
as is laid upon the theurgy of neo-Platonism, which 
drew from the same sources of inspiration, but like 
neo-Platonism it has strengthened man’s feeling of 
eminent dignity by asserting the divine nature of the 
soul. By making inner purity the main object of earthly 
existence, they refined and exalted the psychic life and 
gave it an almost supernatural intensity, which until 
then was unknown in the ancient world. 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 


N this second edition the eight lectures forming the 

reading matter of this book have suffered scarcely 
any change, and, excepting the chapter on Syria, the 
additions are insignificant. It would have been an 
easy matter to expand them, but I did not want these 
lectures to become erudite dissertations, nor the ideas 
which are the essential part of a sketch like the present 
to be overwhelmed by a multiplicity of facts. In gen- 
eral I have therefore limited myself to weeding out 
certain errors that were overlooked, or introduced, in 
the proofreading. 

The notes, however, have been radically revised. I 
have endeavored to give expression to the suggestions 
or observations communicated to me by obliging read- 
ers; to mention new publications and to utilize the 
results of my own studies. The index makes it easy 
to find the subjects discussed. 

And here I must again thank my friend Charles 
Michel, who undertook the tedious task of rereading 
the proofs of this book, and whose scrupulous and 
sagacious care has saved me from many and many a 
blunder. 

Be, 

Paris, FRANCE, February, 1909. 





ROME AND THE ORIENT. 


E are fond of regarding ourselves as the heirs of 
Rome, and we like to think that the Latin genius, 
after having absorbed the genius of Greece, held an 
intellectual and moral supremacy in the ancient world 
similar to the one Europe now maintains, and that the 
culture of the peoples that lived under the authority 
of the Cesars was stamped forever by their strong 
touch. It is difficult to forget the present entirely and 
to renounce aristocratic pretensions. We find it hard 
to believe that the Orient has not always lived, to some 
extent, in the state of humiliation from which it is 
now slowly emerging, and we are inclined to ascribe 
to the ancient inhabitants of Smyrna, Beirut or Alexan- 
dria the faults with which the Levantines of to-day 
are being reproached. The growing influence of the 
Orientals that accompanied the decline of the empire 
has frequently been considered a morbid phenomenon 
and a symptom of the slow decomposition of the an- 
cient world. Even Renan does not seem to have been 
sufficiently free from an old prejudice when he wrote 
on this subject: “That the oldest and most worn out 
civilization should by its corruption subjugate the 
younger was inevitable.” 
But if we calmly consider the real facts, avoiding 
the optical illusion that makes things in our immediate 


2 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


vicinity look larger, we shall form a quite different 
opinion. It is beyond all dispute that Rome found the 
point of suppert of its military power in the Occident. 
The legions from the Danube and the Rhine were al- 
ways braver, stronger and better disciplined than those 
from the Euphrates and the Nile. But it is in the Ori- 
ent, especially in these countries of “old civilization,” 
that we must look for industry and riches, for technical 
ability and artistic productions, as well as for intelli- 
gence and science, even before Constantine made it the 
center of political power. 

While Greece merely vegetated in a state of poverty, 
humiliation and exhaustion; while Italy suffered de- 
population and became unable to provide for her own 
support; while the other countries of Europe were 
hardly out of barbarism; Asia Minor, Egypt and Syria 
gathered the rich harvests Roman peace made possible. 
Their industrial centers cultivated and renewed all the 
traditions that had caused their former celebrity. A 
more intense intellectual life corresponded with the 
economic activity of these great manufacturing and 
exporting countries. They excelled in every profession 
except that of arms, and even the prejudiced Romans 
admitted their superiority. The menace of an Oriental 
empire haunted the imaginations of the first masters 
of the world. Such an empire seems to have been 
the main thought of the dictator Czsar, and the trium- 
vir Antony almost realized it. Even Nero thought of 
making Alexandria his capital. Although Rome, sup- 
ported by her army and the right of might, retained 
the political authority for a long time, she bowed to 
the fatal moral ascendency of more advanced peoples. 
Viewed from this standpoint the history of the empire 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 3 


during the first three centuries may be summarized 
as a “peaceful infiltration” of the Orient into the Occi- 
dent. This truth has become evident since the various 
aspects of Roman civilization are being studied in 
greater detail; and before broaching the special sub- 
ject of these studies we wish to review a few phases 
of the slow metamorphosis of which the propagation 
of the Oriental religions was one phenomenon. 

In the first place the imitation of the Orient showed 
itself plainly in political institutions.3 To be convinced 
of this fact it is sufficient to compare the government of 
the empire in the time of Augustus with what it had 
become under Diocletian. At the beginning of the 
imperial régime Rome ruled the world but did not 
govern it. She kept the number of her functionaries 
down to a minimum, her provinces were mere unorgan- 
ized aggregates of cities where she only exercised po- 
lice power, protectorates rather than annexed coun- 
tries. As long as law and order were maintained and 
her citizens, functionaries and merchants could trans- 
act their business, Rome was satisfied. She saved 
herself the trouble of looking after the public service 
by leaving broad authority to the cities that had existed 
before her domination, or had been modeled after her. 
The taxes were levied by syndicates of bankers and the 
public lands rented out. Before the reforms instituted 
by Augustus, even the army was not an organic and 
permanent force, but consisted theoretically of troops 
levied before a war and discharged after victory. 

Rome’s institutions remained those of a city. It was 
difficult to apply them to the vast territory she at- 
tempted to govern with their aid. They were a clumsy 


4 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


apparatus that worked only by sudden starts, a rudi- 
mentary system that could not and did not last. 

What do we find three centuries later? <A strongly 
centralized state in which an absolute ruler, worshiped 
like a god and surrounded by a large court, commanded 
a whole hierarchy of functionaries; cities divested of 
their local liberties and ruled by an omnipotent bureau- 
cracy, the old capital herself the first to be dispossessed 
of her autonomy and subjected to prefects. Outside 
of the cities the monarch, whose private fortune was 
identical with the state finances, possessed immense 
domains managed by intendants and supporting a pop- 
ulation of serf-colonists. The army was composed 
largely of foreign mercenaries, professional soldiers 
whose pay or bounty consisted of lands on which they 
settled. All these features and many others caused 
the Roman empire to assume the likeness of ancient 
Oriental monarchies. 

It would be impossible to admit that like causes pro- 
duce like results, and then maintain that a similarity 
is not sufficient proof of an influence in history. Wher- 
ever we can closely follow the successive transforma- 
tions of a particular institution, we notice the action 
of the Orient and especially of Egypt. When Rome 
had become a great cosmopolitan metropolis like Alex- 
andria, Augustus reorganized it in imitation of the 
capital of the Ptolemies. The fiscal reforms of the 
Ceesars like the taxes on sales and inheritances, the 
register of land surveys and the direct collection of 
taxes, were suggested by the very perfect financial sys- 
tem of the Lagides,5 and it can be maintained that 
their government was the first source from which those 
of modern Europe were derived; through the medium 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. S 


of the Romans. The imperial saltus, superintended 
by a procurator and cultivated by metayers reduced to 
the state of serfs, was an imitation of the ones that 
the Asiatic potentates formerly cultivated through their 
agents.© It would be easy to increase this list of ex- 
amples. The absolute monarchy, theocratic and bureau- 
cratic at the same time, that was the form of govern- 
ment of Egypt, Syria and even Asia Minor during the 
Alexandrine period was the ideal on which the deified 
Cesars gradually fashioned the Roman empire. 

One cannot however deny Rome the glory of having 
elaborated a system of private law that was logically 
deduced from clearly formulated principles and was 
destined to become the fundamental law of all civilized 
communities. But even in connection with this private 
law, where the originality of Rome is uncontested and 
her preeminence absolute, recent researches have shown 
with how much tenacity the Hellenized Orient main- 
tained its old-legal codes, and how much resistance 
local customs, the woof of the life of nations, offered 
to unification. In truth, unification never was realized 
except in theory.? More than that, these researches 
have proved that the fertile principles of that provin- 
cial law, which was sometimes on a higher moral plane 
than the Roman law, reacted on the progressive trans- 
formation of the old ius civile. And how could it be 
otherwise? Were not a great number of famous jurists 
like Ulpian of Tyre and Papinian of Hemesa natives 
of Syria? And did not the law-school of Beirut con- 
stantly grow in importance after the third century, 
until during the fifth century it became the most bril- 
liant center of legal education? Thus Levantines cul- 


6 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


tivated even the patrimonial field cleared by Scaevola 
and Labeo.® 

In the austere temple of law the Orient held as yet 
only a minor position; everywhere else its authority 
was predominant. The practical mind of the Romans, 
which made them excellent lawyers, prevented them 
from becoming great scholars. They esteemed pure 
science but little, having small talent for it, and one 
notices that it ceased to be earnestly cultivated wher- 
ever their direct domination was established. The great 
astronomers, mathematicians, and physicians, like the 
originators or defenders of the great metaphysical sys- 
tems, were mostly Orientals. Ptolemy and Plotinus 
were Egyptians, Porphyry and Iamblichus, Syrians, 
Dioscorides and Galen, Asiatics. All branches of learn- 
ing were affected by the spirit of the Orient. The 
clearest minds accepted the chimeras of astrology and 
magic. Philosophy claimed more and more to derive 
its inspiration from the fabulous wisdom of Chaldea 
and Egypt. Tired of seeking truth, reason abdicated 
and hoped to.find it in a revelation preserved in the 
mysteries of the barbarians. Greek logic strove to co- 
ordinate into an harmonious whole the confused tra- 
ditions of the Asiatic religions. 

Letters, as well as science, were cultivated chiefly 
by the Orientals. Attention has often been called to 
the fact that those men of letters that were considered 
the purest representatives of the Greek spirit under the 
empire belonged almost without exception to Asia 
Minor, Syria or Egypt. The rhetorician Dion Chry- 
sostom came from Prusa in Bithynia, the satirist Lucian 
from Samosata in Commagene on the borders of the 
Euphrates. A number of other names could be cited. 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 7 


From Tacitus and Suetonius down to Ammianus, there 
was not one author of talent to preserve in Latin the 
memory of the events that stirred the world of that 
period, but it was a Bithynian again, Dion Cassius of 
Nicea, who, under the Severi, narrated the history of 
the Roman people. 

It is a characteristic fact that, besides this literature 
whose language was Greek, others were born, revived 
and developed. The Syriac, derived from the Aramaic 
which was the international language of earlier Asia, 
became again the language of a cultured race with 
Bardesanes of Edessa. The Copts remembered that 
they had spoken several dialects derived from the an- 
cient Egyptian and endeavored to revive them. North 
of the Taurus even the Armenians began to write and 
polish their barbarian speech. Christian preaching, 
addressed to the people, took hold of the popular idioms 
and roused them from their long lethargy. Along the 
Nile as well as on the plains of Mesopotamia or in the 
valleys of Anatolia it proclaimed its new ideas in dia- 
lects that had been despised hitherto, and wherever 
the old Orient had not been entirely denationalized 
by Hellenism, it successfully reclaimed its intellectual 
autonomy. 

A revival of native art went hand in hand with this 
linguistic awakening. In no field of intellect has the 
illusion mentioned above been so complete and lasting 
as in this one. Until a few years ago the opinion pre- 
vailed that an “imperial” art had come into existence 
in the Rome of Augustus and that thence its predomi- 
nance had slowly spread to the periphery of the ancient 
world. If it had undergone some special modifications 
in Asia these were due to exotic influences, undoubtedly 


8 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Assyrian or Persian. Not even the important discov- 
eries of M. de Vogiié in Hauran9 were sufficient to 
prove the emptiness of a theory that was supported by 
our lofty conviction of European leadership. 

To-day it is fully proven not only that Rome has 
given nothing or almost nothing to the Orientals but 
also that she has received quite a little from them. 
Impregnated with Hellenism, Asia produced an aston- 
ishing number of original works of art in the kingdoms 
of the Diadochs. The old processes, the discovery of 
which dates back to the Chaldeans, the Hittites or the 
subjects of the Pharaohs, were first utilized by the con- 
querors of Alexander’s empire who conceived a rich 
variety of new types, and created an original style. 
But if during the three centuries preceding our era, 
sovereign Greece played the part of the demiurge who 
creates living beings out of preexisting matter, during 
the three following centuries her productive power be- 
came exhausted, her faculty of invention weakened, 
the ancient local traditions revolted against her empire 
and with the help of Christianity overcame it. Trans- 
ferred to Byzantium they expanded in a new efflores- 
cence and spread over Europe where they paved the 
way for the formation of the Romanesque art of the 
early Middle Ages.7° 

Rome, then, far from having established her suzer- 
ainty, was tributary to the Orient in this respect. The 
Orient was her superior in the extent and precision 
of its technical knowledge as well as in the inventive 
genius and ability of its workmen. The Cesars were 
great builders but frequently employed foreign help. 
Trajan’s principal architect, a magnificent builder, was 
a Syrian, Apollodorus of Damascus." 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 9 


Her Levantine subjects not only taught Italy the 
attistic solution of architectonic problems like the erec- 
tion of a cupola on a rectangular or octagonal edifice, 
but also compelled her to accept their taste, and they 
saturated her with their genius. They imparted to 
her their love of luxuriant decoration, and of violent 
polychromy, and they gave religious sculpture and 
painting the complicated symbolism that pleased their 
abstruse and subtle minds. 

In those times art was closely connected with in- 
dustry, which was entirely manual and individual. 
They learned from each other, they improved and de- 
clined together, in short they were inseparable. Shall 
_ we call the painters that decorated the architecturally 
fantastic and airy walls of Pompeii in Alexandrian 
or perhaps Syrian taste artisans or artists? And how 
shall we classify the goldsmiths, Alexandrians also, who 
carved those delicate leaves, those picturesque animals, 
those harmoniously elegant or cunningly animated 
groups that cover the phials and goblets of Bosco 
Reale? And descending from the productions of the 
industrial arts to those of industry itself, one might 
also trace the growing influence of the Orient; one 
might show how the action of the great manufacturing 
centers of the East gradually transformed the material 
civilization of Europe; one might point out how the 
introduction into Gault? of exotic patterns and pro- 
cesses changed the old native industry and gave its 
products a perfection and a popularity hitherto un- 
known. But I dislike to insist overmuch on a point 
apparently so foreign to the one now before us. It 
was important however to mention this subject at the 
beginning because in whatever direction scholars of 


10 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


to-day pursue their investigations they always notice 
Asiatic culture slowly supplanting that of Italy. The 
latter developed only by absorbing elements taken from 
the inexhaustible reserves of the “old civilizations” of 
which we spoke at the beginning. The Hellenized 
Orient imposed itself everywhere through its men and 
its works; it subjected its Latin conquerors to its as- 
cendancy in the same manner as it dominated its Ara- 
bian conquerors later when it became the civilizer of 
Islam. But in no field of thought was its influence, 
under the empire, so decisive as in religion, because it 
finally brought about the complete destruction of the 
Greco-Latin paganism.?3 

The invasion of the barbarian religions was so open, 
so noisy and so triumphant that it could not remain 
unnoticed. It attracted the anxious or sympathetic 
attention of the ancient authors, and since the Renais- 
sance modern scholars have frequently taken interest 
in it. Possibly however they did not sufficiently under- 
_ stand that this religious evolution was not an isolated 
and extraordinary phenomenon, but that it accompanied 
and aided a more general evolution, just as that aided 
itin turn. The transformation of beliefs was intimately 
connected with the establishment of the monarchy by 
divine right, the development of art, the prevailing 
philosophic tendencies, in fact with all the manifesta- 
tions of thought, sentiment and taste. 

We shall attempt to sketch this religious movement 
with its numerous and far-reaching ramifications. First 
we shall try to show what caused the diffusion of the 
Oriental religions. In the second place we shall ex- 
amine those in particular that originated in Asia Minor, 
Egypt, Syria and Persia, and we shall endeavor to dis- 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. eG | 


tinguish their individual characteristics and estimate 
their value. We shall see, finally, how the ancient 
idolatry was transformed and what form it assumed in 
its last struggle against Christianity, whose victory 
was furthered by Asiatic mysteries, although they op- 
posed its doctrine. 

* CK 3K . 

But before broaching this subject a preliminary ques- 
tion must be answered. Is the study which we have 
just outlined possible? What items will be of assistance 
to us in this undertaking? From what sources are we 
to derive our knowledge of the Oriental religions in the 
Roman empire? 

It must be admitted that the sources are inadequate 
and have not as yet been sufficiently investigated. 

Perhaps no loss caused by the general wreck of an- 
cient literature has been more disastrous than that of 
the liturgic books of paganism. A few mystic formu- 
las quoted incidentally by pagan or Christian authors 
and a few fragments of hymns in honor of the gods!4 
are practically all that escaped destruction. In order 
to obtain an idea of what those lost rituals may have 
been one must turn to their imitations contained in the 
chorus of tragedies, and to the parodies comic authors 
sometimes made; or look up in books of magic the 
plagiarisms that writers of incantations may have com- 
mitted.'5 But all this gives us only a dim reflection 
of the religious ceremonies. Shut out from the sanc- 
tuary like profane outsiders, we hear only the indistinct 
echo of the sacred songs and not even in imagination 
can we attend the celebration of the mysteries. 

We do not know how the ancients prayed, we can- 
not penetrate into the intimacy of their religious life, 


EZ THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


and certain depths of the soul of antiquity we must 
leave unsounded. If a fortunate windfall could give 
us possession of some sacred book of the later pagan- 
ism its revelations would surprise the world. We 
could witness the performance of those mysterious 
dramas whose symbolic acts commemorated the passion 
of the gods; in company with the believers we could 
sympathize with their sufferings, lament their death 
and share in the joy of their return to life. In those 
vast collections of archaic rites that hazily perpetuated 
the memory of abolished creeds we would find tradi- 
tional formulas couched in obsolete language that was 
scarcely understood, naive prayers conceived by the 
faith of the earliest ages, sanctified by the devotion 
of past centuries, and almost ennobled by the joys and 
sufferings of past generations. We would also read 
those hymns in which philosophic thought found ex- 
pression in sumptuous allegories'® or humbled itself be- 
fore the omnipotence of the infinite, poems of which 
only a few stoic effusions celebrating the creative or 
destructive fire, or expressing a complete surrender 
to divine fate can give us some idea.?7 

But everything is gone, and thus we lose the pos- 
sibility of studying from the original documents the 
internal development of the pagan religions. 

Weshould feel this loss less keenly if we possessed at 
least the works of Greek and Latin mythographers on 
the subject of foreign divinities like the voluminous 
books published during the second century by Eusebius 
and Pallas on the Mysteries of Mithra. But those 
works were thought devoid of interest or even dan- 
gerous by the devout Middle Ages, and they are not 
likely to have survived the fall of paganism. The 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 13 


treatises on mythology that have been preserved deal 
almost entirely with the ancient Hellenic fables made 
famous by the classic writers, to the neglect of the 
Oriental religions.'® 

As a rule, all we find in literature on this subject 
are a few incidental remarks and passing allusions. 
History is incredibly poor in that respect. This poverty 
of information was caused in the first place by a nar- 
rowness of view characteristic of the rhetoric cultivated 
by historians of the classical period and especially of 
the empire. Politics and the wars of the rulers, the 
dramas, the intrigues and even the gossip of the courts 
and of the official world were of much higher interest 
to them than the great economic or religious transfor- 
mations. Moreover, there is no period of the Roman 
empire concerning which we are so little informed as 
the third century, precisely the one during which the 
Oriental religions reached the apogee of their power. 
From Herodianus and Dion Cassius to the Byzantines, 
and from Suetonius to Ammianus Marcellinus, all nar- 
ratives of any importance have been lost, and this 
deplorable blank in historic tradition is particularly 
fatal to the study of paganism. 

It is a strange fact that light literature concerned 
itself more with these grave questions. The rites of 
the exotic religions stimulated the imagination of the 
satirists, and the pomp of the festivities furnished the 
novelists with brilliant descriptive matter. Juvenal 
laughs at the mortifications of the devotees of Isis; in 
his Necromancy Lucian parodies the interminable puri- 
fications of the magi, and in the Metamorphoses Apu- 
leius relates the various scenes of an initiation into 
the mysteries of Isis with the fervor of a neophyte and 


14 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the studied refinement of a rhetorician. But as a rule 
we find only incidental remarks and superficial obser- 
vations in the authors. Not even the precious treatise 
On the Syrian Goddess, in which Lucian tells of a 
visit to the temple of Hierapolis and repeats his con- 
versation with the priests, has any depth. What he 
relates is the impression of an intelligent, curious and 
above all an ironical traveler.19 

In order to obtain a more perfect initiation and a less 
fragmentary insight into the doctrines taught by the 
Oriental religions, we are compelled to turn to two 
kinds of testimony, inspired by contrary tendencies, but 
equally suspicious: the testimony of the philosophers, 
and that of the fathers of the church. The Stoics and 
the Platonists frequently took an interest in the re- 
ligious beliefs of the barbarians, and it is to them that 
we are indebted for the possession of highly valuable 
data on this subject. Plutarch’s treatise Isis and Osiris 
is a source whose importance is appreciated even by 
Egyptologists, whom it aids in reconstructing the leg- 
ends of those divinities.2° But the philosophers very 
seldom expounded foreign doctrines objectively and 
for their own sake. They embodied them in their sys- 
tems as a means of proof or illustration; they sur- 
rounded them with personal exegesis or drowned them 
in transcendental commentaries ; in short, they claimed 
to discover their own ideas in them. It is always diffi- 
cult and sometimes impossible to distinguish the dog- 
mas from the self-confident interpretations which are 
usually as incorrect as possible. 

The writings of the ecclesiastical authors, although 
prejudiced, are very fertile sources of information, but 
in perusing them one must guard against another kind 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 15 


of error. By a peculiar irony of fate those contro- 
versialists are to-day in many instances our only aid 
in reviving the idolatry they attempted to destroy. Al- 
though the Oriental religions were the most dangerous 
and most persistent adversaries of Christianity, the 
works of the Christian writers do not supply as abun- 
dant information as one might suppose. The reason 
for this is that the fathers of the church often show a 
certain reserve in speaking of idolatry, and affect to 
recall its monstrosities only in guarded terms. More- 
over, as we shall see later on,?! the apologists of the 
fourth century were frequently behind the times as to 
the evolution of doctrines, and drawing on literary 
tradition, from epicureans and skeptics, they fought 
especially the beliefs of the ancient Grecian and Italian 
religions that had been abolished or were dying out, 
while they neglected the living beliefs of the contempo- 
rary world. 

Some of these polemicists nevertheless directed their 
attacks against the divinities of the Orient and their 
Latin votaries. Either they derived their information 
from converts or they had been pagans themselves 
during their youth. This was the case with Firmicus 
Maternus who has written a bad treatise on astrology 
and finally fought the Error of the Profane Religions. 
However, the question always arises as to how much 
they can have known of the esoteric doctrines and the 
ritual ceremonies, the secret of which was jealously 
guarded. They boast so loudly of their power to dis- 
close these abominations, that they incur the suspicion 
that the discretion of the initiates baffled their curiosity. 
In addition they were too ready to believe all the calum- 
nies that were circulated against the pagan mysteries, 


16 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


calumnies directed against occult sects of all times and 
against the Christians themselves. 

In short, the literary tradition is not very rich and 
frequently little worthy of belief. While it is com- 
paratively considerable for the Egyptian religions be- 
cause they were received by the Greek world as early 
as the period of the Ptolemies, and because letters and 
science were always cultivated at Alexandria, it is even 
less important for Phrygia, although Cybele was Hel- 
lenized and Latinized very early, and excepting the 
tract by Lucian on the goddess of Hierapolis it is 
almost nothing for the Syrian, Cappadocian and Per- 
sian religions. 

The insufficiency of the data supplied by writers in- 
creases the value of information furnished by epi- 
graphic and archeological documents, whose number is 
steadily growing. The inscriptions possess a certainty 
and precision that is frequently absent in the phrases 
of the writers. They enable one to draw important 
conclusions as to the dates of propagation and disap- 
pearance of the various religions, their extent, the 
quality and social rank of their votaries, the sacred 
hierarchy and sacerdotal personnel, the constitution 
of the religious communities, the offerings made to the 
gods, and the ceremonies: performed in their honor ; 
in short, conclusions as to the secular and profane 
history of these religions, and in a certain measure 
their ritual. But the conciseness of the lapidary style 
and the constant repetition of stereotyped formulas — 
naturally render that kind of text hardly explicit and 
sometimes enigmatical. There are dedications like the 
Nama Sebesio engraved upon the great Mithra bas- 
relief preserved in the Louvre, that caused a number of 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 17 


dissertations to be written without any one explain- 
ing it. And besides, in a general way, epigraphy gives 
us but little information about the liturgy and almost 
nothing regarding the doctrines. 

Archeology must endeavor to fill the enormous blanks 
left by the written tradition ; the monuments, especially 
the artistic ones, have not as yet been collected with 
sufficient care nor interpreted with sufficient method. 
By studying the arrangement of the temples and the 
religious furniture that adorned them, one can at the 
same time determine part of the liturgic ceremonies 
which took place there. On the other hand, the crit- 
ical interpretation of statuary relics enables us to re- 
construct with sufficient correctness certain sacred leg- 
ends and to recover part of the theology of the mys- 
teries. Unlike Greek art, the religious art at the close 
of paganism did not seek, or sought only incidentally, 
to elevate the soul through the contemplation of an 
ideal of divine beauty. True to the traditions of the 
ancient Orient, it tried to edify and to instruct at the 
same time.??_ It told the history of the gods and the 
world in cycles of pictures, or it expressed through 
symbols the subtle conceptions of theology and even 
certain doctrines of profane science, like the struggle 
of the four elements; just as during the Middle Ages, 
so the artist of the empire interpreted the ideas of the 
clergy, teaching the believers by means of pictures and 
rendering the highest religious conceptions intelligible 
to the humblest minds. But to read this mystic book 
whose pages are scattered in our museums we must 
laboriously look for its key, and we cannot take for a 
guide and exegetist some Vincent de Beauvais of Dio- 
cletian’s period?3 as when looking over the marvelous 


18 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


sculptured encyclopedias in our Gothic cathedrals. Our 
position is frequently similar to that of a scholar of 
the year 4000 who would undertake to write the his- 
tory of the Passion from the pictures of the fourteen 
stations, or to study the veneration of the saints from 
the statues found in the ruins of our churches. 

But, as far as the Oriental religions are concerned, 
the results of all the laborious investigations now being 
made in the classical countries can be indirectly con- 
trolled, and this is a great advantage. To-day we are 
tolerably well acquainted with the old religions of 
Egypt, Babylonia and Persia. We read and translate 
correctly the hieroglyphics of the Nile, the cuneiform 
tablets of Mesopotamia and the sacred books, Zend or 
Pahlavi, of Parseeism. Religious history has profited 
more by their deciphering than the history of politics 
or of civilization. In Syria also, the discovery of Ara- 
maic and Phoenician inscriptions and the excavations 
made in temples have in a certain measure covered 
the deficiency of information in the Bible or in the 
Greek writers on Semitic paganism. Even Asia Minor, 
that is to say the uplands of Anatolia, is beginning 
to reveal herself to explorers although almost all the 
great sanctuaries, Pessinus, the two Comanas, Casta- 
bala, are as yet buried underground. We can, there- 
fore, even now form a fairly exact idea of the beliefs 
of some of the countries that sent the Oriental mys- 
teries to Rome. To tell the truth, these researches 
have not been pushed far enough to enable us to state 
precisely what form religion had assumed in those re- 
gions at the time they came into contact with Italy, 
and we should be likely to commit very strange errors, 
if we brought together practices that may have -been 


ROME AND THE ORIENT. 19 


separated by thousands of years. It is a task reserved 
for the future to establish a rigorous chronology in this 
matter, to determine the ultimate phase that the evolu- 
tion of creeds in all regions of the Levant had reached 
at the beginning of our era, and to connect them with- 
out interruption of continuity to the mysteries prac- 
ticed in the Latin world, the secrets of which archeo- 
logical researches are slowly bringing to light. 

We are still far from welding all the links of this 
long chain firmly together; the orientalists and the 
classical philologists cannot, as yet, shake hands across 
the Mediterranean. We raise only one corner of Isis’s 
veil, and scarcely guess a part of the revelations that 
were, even formerly, reserved for a pious and chosen 
few. Nevertheless we have reached, on the road of 
certainty, a summit from which we can overlook the 
field that our successors will clear. In the course of 
these lectures I shall attempt to give a summary of the 
essential results achieved by the erudition of the nine- 
teenth century and to draw from them a few conclu- 
sions that will, possibly, be provisional. The invasion 
of the Oriental religions that destroyed the ancient 
religions and national ideals of the Romans also rad- 
ically transformed the society and government of the 
empire, and in view of this fact it would deserve the 
historian’s attention even if it had not foreshadowed 
and prepared the final victory of Christianity. 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 


HEN, during the fourth century, the weakened 
empire split asunder like an overburdened scale 
whose beam is broken, this political divorce perpetu- 
ated a moral separation that had existed for a long 
time. The opposition between the Greco-Oriental and 
the Latin worlds manifests itself especially in religion 
and in the attitude taken by the central power toward it. 
Occidental paganism was almost exclusively Latin 
under the empire. After the annexation of Spain, Gaul 
and Brittany, the old Iberian, Celtic and other religions 
were unable to keep up the unequal struggle against 
the more advanced religion of the conquerors. The 
marvelous rapidity with which the literature of the 
civilizing Romans was accepted by the subject peoples 
has frequently been pointed out. Its influence was felt 
in the temples as well as in the forum; it transformed 
the prayers to the gods as well as the conversation be- 
tween men. Besides, it was part of the political pro- 
gram of the Czsars to make the adoption of the Roman 
divinities general, and the government imposed the 
rules of its sacerdotal law as well as the principles of 
its public and civil law upon its new subjects. The 
municipal laws prescribed the election of pontiffs and 
augurs in common with the judicial duumvirs. In 
Gaul druidism, with its oral traditions embodied in 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD, 21 


long poems, perished and disappeared less on account 
of the police measures directed against it than in con- 
sequence of its voluntary relinquishment by the Celts, 
as soon as they came under the ascendency of Latin 
culture. In Spain it is difficult to find any traces of the 
aboriginal religions. Even in Africa, where the Punic 
religion was far more developed, it maintained itself 
only by assuming an entirely Roman appearance. Baal 
became Saturn and Eshmoun A‘sculapius. It is doubt- 
ful if there was one temple in all the provinces of Italy 
and Gaul where, at the time of the disappearance of 
idolatry, the ceremonies were celebrated according to 
native rites and in the local idiom. To this exclusive 
predominance of Latin is due the fact that it remained 
the only liturgic language of the Occidental church, 
which here as in many other cases perpetuated a pre- 
existing condition and maintained a unity previously 
established. By imposing her speech upon the inhabi- 
tants of Ireland and Germany, Christian Rome simply 
continued the work of assimilation in the barbarian 
provinces subject to her influence that she had begun 
while pagan.! 

In the Orient, however, the churches that are sep- 
arate from the Greek orthodoxy use, even to-day, a 
variety of dialects calling to mind the great diversity 
of races formerly subject to Rome. In those times 
twenty varieties of speech translated the religious 
thought of the peoples joined under the dominion of 
the Czsars. At the beginning of our era Hellenism 
had not yet conquered the uplands of Anatolia,? nor 
central Syria, nor the divisions of Egypt. Annexation 
to the empire might retard and in certain regions 
weaken the power of expansion of Greek civilization, 


22 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


but it could not substitute Latin culture for it3 except 
around the camps of the legions guarding the frontier 
and in a very few colonies. It especially benefitted the 
individuality of each region. The native religions re- 
tained all their prestige and independence. In their 
ancient sanctuaries that took rank with the richest and 
most famous of the world, a powerful clergy continued 
to practise ancestral devotions according to barbarian 
rites, and frequently in a barbarian tongue. The tra- 
ditional liturgy, everywhere performed with scrupu- 
lous respect, remained Egyptian or Semitic, Phrygian 
or Persian, according to the locality. 

Neither pontifical law nor augural science ever ob- 
tained credit outside of the Latin world. It is a char- 
acteristic fact that the worship of the deified emperors, 
the only official worship required of every one by the 
government as a proof of loyalty, should have orig- 
inated of its own accord in Asia, received its inspira- 
tion from the purest monarchic traditions, and revived 
in form and spirit the veneration accorded to the Dia- 
dochi by their subjects. 

Not only were the gods of Egypt and Asia never 
supplanted like those of Gaul or Spain, but they soon 
crossed the seas and gained worshipers in every Latin 
province. Isis and Serapis, Cybele and Attis, the Syr- 
ian Baals, Sabazius and Mithra were honored by 
brotherhoods of believers as far as the remotest limits 
of Germany. The Oriental reaction that we perceive 
from the beginning of our era, in studying the history 
of art, literature, and philosophy, manifested itself 
with incomparably greater power in the religious 
sphere. First, there was a slow infiltration of despised 
exotic religions, then, toward the end of the first cen- 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 23 


tury, the Orontes, the Nile and the Halys, to use the 
words of Juvenal, flowed into the Tiber, to the great 
indignation of the old Romans, Finally, a hundred 
years later, an influx of Egyptian, Semitic and Per- 
sian beliefs and conceptions took place that threatened 
to submerge all that the Greek and Roman genius had 
laboriously built up. What called forth and permitted 
this spiritual commotion, of which the triumph of 
Christianity was the outcome? Why was the influence 
of the Orient strongest in the religious field? These 
questions claim our attention. Like all great phenom- 
ena of history, this particular one was determined by 
a number of influences that concurred in producing it. 
In the mass of half-known particulars that brought it 
about, certain factors or leading causes, of which every 
one has in turn been considered the most important, 
may be distinguished. 

If we yielded to the tendency of many excellent 
minds of to-day and regarded history as the resultant 
of economic and social forces, it would be easy to show 
their influence in that great religious movement. The 
industrial and commercial preponderance of the Orient 
was manifest, for there were situated the principal cen- 
ters of production and export. The ever increasing 
traffic with the Levant induced merchants to establish 
themselves in Italy, in Gaul, in the Danubian coun- 
tries, in Africa and in Spain; in some cities they formed 
real colonies. The Syrian emigrants were especially 
numerous. Compliant, quick and diligent, they went 
wherever they expected profit, and their colonies, scat- 
tered as far as the north of Gaul, were centers for the 
religious propaganda of paganism just as the Jewish 
communities of the Diaspora were for Christian preach- 


24 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ing. Italy not only bought her grain from Egypt, she 
imported men, also; she ordered slaves from Phrygia, 
Cappadocia, Syria and Alexandria to cultivate her de- 
populated fields and perform the domestic duties in 
her palaces. Who can tell what influence chamber- 
maids from Antioch or Memphis gained over the minds 
of their mistresses? At the same time the necessities 
of war removed officers and men from the Euphrates 
to the Rhine or to the outskirts of the Sahara, and 
everywhere they remained faithful to the gods of their 
far-away country. The requirements of the govern- 
ment transferred functionaries and their clerks, the 
latter frequently of servile birth, into the most distant 
provinces. J'inally, the ease of communication, due 
to the good roads, increased the frequency and extent 
of travel. 

Thus the exchange of products, men and ideas neces- 
sarily increased, and it might be maintained that theoc- 
racy was a necessary consequence of the mingling of 
the races, that the gods of the Orient followed the great 
commercial and social currents, and that their estab- 
lishment in the Occident was a natural result of the 
movement that drew the excess population of the 
Asiatic cities and rural districts into the less thickly 
inhabited countries. 

These reflections, which could be developed at some 
length, surely show the way in which the Oriental re- 
ligions spread. It is certain that the merchants acted 
as missionaries in the seaports and places of commerce, 
the soldiers on the frontiers and in the capital, the 
slaves in the city homes,4 in the rural districts and in 
public affairs. But while this acquaints us with the 
means and the agents of the diffusion of those religions, 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 25 


it tells us nothing of the reasons for their adoption by 
the Romans. We perceive the how, but not the why, 
of their sudden expansion. Especially imperfect is our 
understanding of the reasons for the difference between 
the Orient and the Occident pointed out above. 

An example will make my meaning clear. A Celtic 
divinity, Epona,5 was held in particular honor as the 
protectress of horses, as we all know. The Gallic 
horsemen worshiped her wherever they were cantoned ; 
her monuments have been found scattered from Scot- 
land to Transylvania. And yet, although this goddess 
enjoyed the same conditions as, for instance, Jupiter 
Dolichenus whom the cohorts of Commagene intro- 
duced. into Europe, it does not appear that she ever 
received the homage of many strangers; it does not 
appear, above all, that druidism ever assumed the shape 
of “mysteries of Epona” into which Greeks and Ro- 
mans would have asked to be initiated. It was too 
deficient in the intrinsic strength of the Oriental re- 
ligions, to make proselytes. 

Other historians and thinkers of to-day prefer to 
apply the laws of natural science to religious phenom- 
ena; and the theories about the variation of species 
- find an unforeseen application here. It is maintained 
that the immigration of Orientals, of Syrians in par- 
ticular, was considerable enough to provoke an altera- 
tion and rapid deterioration in the robust Italic and 
Celtic races. In addition, a social status contrary to 
nature, and a bad political régime effected the destruc- 
tion of the strongest, the extermination of the best and 
the ascendancy of the worst elements of the population. 
This multitude, corrupted by deleterious cross-breeding 
and weakened by bad selection, became unable to op- 


26 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


pose the invasion of the Asiatic chimeras and aberra- 
tions. A lowering of the intellectual level and the dis- 
appearance of the critical spirit accompanied the de- 
cline of morals and the weakening of character. In 
the evolution of beliefs the triumph of the Orient de- 
noted a regression toward barbarism, a return to the 
remote origins of faith and to the worship of natural 
forces. This is a brief outline of explanations recently 
proposed and received with some favor.® 

It cannot be denied that souls and morals appear to 
have become coarser during the Roman decline. So- 
ciety as a whole was deplorably lacking in imagination, 
intellect and taste. It seemed afflicted with a kind of 
cerebral anemia and incurable sterility. The impaired 
reason accepted the coarsest superstitions, the most 
extreme asceticism and most extravagant theurgy. It 
resembled an organism incapable of defending itself 
against contagion. All this is partly true; but the 
theories summarized proceed from an incorrect con- 
ception of things; in reality they are based on the illu- 
sion that Asia, under the empire, was inferior to 
Europe. While the triumph of the Oriental religions 
sometimes assumed the appearance of an awakening 
of savagery, these religions in reality represented a 
more advanced type in the evolution of religious forms 
than the ancient national devotions. They were less 
primitive, less simple, and, if I may use the expression, 
provided with more organs than the old Greco-Roman 
idolatry. We have indicated this on previous occa- 
sions, and hope to bring it out with perfect clearness in 
the course of these studies. 

It is hardly necessary to state that a great religious 
conquest can be explained only on moral grounds. 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD, yee 


Whatever part must be ascribed to the instinct of imi- 
tation and the contagion of example, in the last anal- 
ysis we are always face to face with a series of indi- 
vidual conversions. The mysterious affinity of minds 
is as much due to reflection as to the continued and 
almost unconscious influence of confused aspirations 
that produce faith. The obscure gestation of a new 
ideal is accomplished with pangs of anguish. Violent 
struggles must have disturbed the souls of the masses 
when they were torn away from their old ancestral 
religions, or more often from indifference, by those 
exacting gods who demanded a surrender of the en- 
tire person, a devotion in the etymological meaning of 
the word. The consecration to Isis of the hero of 
Apuleius was the result of a call, of an appeal, by the 
goddess who wanted the neophyte to enlist in her sacred 
militia,” 

If it is true that every conversion involves a psycho- 
logical crisis, a transformation of the intimate per- 
sonality of the individual, this is especially true of the 
propagation of the Oriental religions. Born outside 
of the narrow limits of the Roman city, they grew up 
frequently in hostility to it, and were international, 
consequently individual. The bond that formerly kept 
devotion centered upon the city or the tribe, upon the 
gens or the family, was broken. In place of the ancient 
social groups communities of initiates came into exist- 
ence, who considered themselves brothers no matter 
where they came from.’ A god, conceived of as being 
universal, received every mortal as his child. When- 
ever these religions had any relation to the state they 
were no longer called upon to support old municipal 
or social institutions, but to lend their strength to the 


28 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


authority of a sovereign regarded as the eternal lord 
of the whole world jointly with God himself. In the 
circles of the mystics, Asiatics mingled with Romans, 
and slaves with high functionaries. The adoption of 
the same faith made the poor freedman the equal and 
sometimes the superior, of the decurion and the claris- 
simus. All submitted to the same rules and participated 
in the same festivities, in which the distinctions of an 
aristocratic society and the differences of blood and 
country were obliterated. The distinctions of race and 
nationality, of magistrate and father of a family, of 
patrician and plebeian, of citizen and foreigner, were 
abolished; all were but men, and in order to recruit 
members, those religions worked upon man and his 
character. 

In order to gain the masses and the cream ot Roman 
society (as they did for a whole century) the barbarian 
mysteries had to possess a powerful charm, they had 
to satisfy the deep wants of the human soul, and their 
strength had to be superior to that of the ancient Greco- 
Roman religion. To explain the reasons for their vic- 
tory we must try to reveal the nature of this superior- 
ity—I mean their superiority in the struggle, without 
assuming innate superiority. 

I believe that we can define it by stating that those 


religions gave greater satisfaction first. to the senses 


and passions, secondly, to the intelligence, finally, and 
above all, to the conscience. 

In the first place, they appealed more strongly to the 
senses. This was their most obvious feature, and it has 
been pointed out more often than any other. Perhaps 
there never was a religion so cold and prosaic as the 
Roman. Being subordinated to politics, it sought, 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 29 


above all, to secure the protection of the gods for the 
state and to avert the effects of their malevolence by 
the strict execution of appropriate practices. It entered 
into a contract with the celestial powers from which 
mutual obligations arose: sacrifices on one side, favors 
on the other. The pontiffs, who were also magistrates, 
regulated the religious practices with the exact preci- 
sion of jurists ;9 as far as we know the prayers were all 
couched in formulas as dry and verbose as notarial 
instruments. The liturgy reminds one of the ancient 
civil law on account of the minuteness of its prescrip- 
tions. This religion looked suspiciously at the abandon- 
ment of the soul to the ecstasies of devotion. It re- 
pressed, by force if necessary, the exuberant manifes- 
tations of too ardent faith and everything that was 
not in keeping with the grave dignity befitting the 
relations of a civis Romanus with a god. The Jews 
had the same scrupulous respect as the Romans for a 
religious code and formulas of the past, “but in spite 
of their dry and minute practices, the legalism of the 
Pharisees stirred the heart more strongly than did 
Roman formalism.’’!° 

Lacking the recognized authority of official creeds, 
the Oriental religions had to appeal to the passions of 
the individual in order to make proselytes. They at- 
tracted men first by the disturbing seductiveness of 
their mysteries, where terror and hope were evoked in 
turns, and charmed them by the pomp of their festiv- 
ities and the magnificence of their processions. Men 
were fascinated by the languishing songs and intoxi- 
cating melodies. Above all these religions taught men 
how to reach that blissful state in which the soul was 
freed from the tyranny of the body and of suffering, 


30 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


and lost itself in raptures. They led to ecstasy either 
by means of nervous tension resulting from continued 
maceration and fervent contemplation or by more ma- 
terial means like the stimulation of vertiginous dances 
and dizzy music, or even by the absorption of fer- 
mented liquors after a long abstinence,''as in the case 
of the priests of the Great Mother. In mysticism it is 
easy to descend from the sublime to the vile. 

Even the gods, with whom the believers thought they 
were uniting themselves in their mystic outbursts, were 
more human and sometimes more sensual than those 
of the Occident. The latter had that quietude of soul 
in which the philosophic morality of the Greeks saw a 
privilege of the sage; in the serenity of Olympus they 
enjoyed perpetual youth; they were Immortals. The 
divinities of the Orient, on the contrary, suffered and 
died, but only to revive again.'? Osiris, Attis and 
Adonis were mourned like mortals by wife or mistress, 
Isis, Cybele or Astarte. With them the mystics moaned 
for their deceased god and later, after he had revived, 
celebrated with exultation his birth to a new life. Or 
else they joined in the passion of Mithra, condemned 
to create the world in suffering. This common grief 
and joy were often expressed with savage violence, by 
bloody mutilations, long wails of despair, and extrav- 
agant acclamations. The manifestations of the extreme 
fanaticism of those barbarian races that had not been 
touched by Greek skepticism and the very ardor of 
their faith inflamed the souls of the multitudes attracted 
by the exotic gods. 

The Oriental religions touched every chord of sensi- 
bility and satisfied the thirst for religious emotion that 
the austere Roman creed had been unable to quench. 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 31 


But at the same time they satisfied the intellect more 
fully, and this is my second point. 

In very early times Greece—later imitated by Rome 
—hecame resolutely rationalistic: her greatest original- 
ity lies here. Her philosophy was purely laical ; thought 
was unrestrained by any sacred tradition; it even pre- 
tended to pass judgment upon these traditions and con- 
demned or approved of them. Being sometimes hos- 
tile, sometimes indifferent and some times conciliatory, 
it always remained independent of faith. But while 
Greece thus freed herself from the fetters of a super- 
annuated mythology, and openly and boldly constructed 
those systems of metaphysics by means of which she 
claimed to solve the enigmas of the universe, her re- 
ligion lost its vitality and dried up because it lacked 
the strengthening nourishment of reflection. It be- 
came a thing devoid of sense, whose raison d’étre was 
no longer understood ; it embodied dead ideas and an 
obsolete conception of the world. In Greece as well as 
at Rome it was reduced to a collection of unintelligible 
rites, scrupulously and mechanically reproduced with- 
out addition or omission because they had been prac- 
tised by the ancestors of long ago, and formulas 
hallowed by the mos maiorum, that were no longer 
understood or sincerely cherished. Never did a people 
of advanced culture have a more iniantile religion. 

The Oriental civilizations on the contrary were sacer- 
dotal in character. As in medieval Europe, the schol- 
ars of Asia and Egypt were priests. In the tem- 
ples the nature of the gods and of man were not the 
only subjects of discussion; mathematics, astronomy, 
medicine, philology and history were also studied. The 
successors of Berosus, a priest from Babylonia, and 


Bz THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Manetho, a priest from Heliopolis, were considered 
deeply versed in all intellectual disciplines as late as the 
time of Strabo."3 

This state of affairs proved detrimental to the prog- 
ress of science. Researches were conducted according 
to preconceived ideas and were perverted through 
strange prejudices. Astrology and magic were the 
monstrous fruit of a hybrid union. But all this cer- 
tainly gave religion a power it had never possessed 
either in Greece or Rome. 

All results of observation, all conquests of thought, 
were used by an erudite clergy to attain the principal 
object of their activities, the solution of the problem 
of the destiny of man and matter, and of the relations 
of heaven and earth. An ever enlarging conception of 
the universe kept transforming the modes of belief. 
Faith presumed to enslave both physics and metaphys- 
ics. The credit of every discovery was given to the 
gods. Thoth in Egypt and Bel in Chaldea were the 
revealers not only of theology and the ritual, but of all 
human knowledge.'4¢ The names of the Oriental Hip- 
parchi and Euclids who solved the first problems of 
astronomy and geometry were unknown; but a con- 
fused and grotesque literature made use of the name 
and authority of Hermes Trismegistus. The doctrines 
of the planetary spheres and the opposition of the four 
elements were made to support systems of anthro- 
pology and of morality; the theorems of astronomy 
were used to establish an alleged method of divination ; 
formulas of incantation, supposed to subject divine 
powers to the magician, were combined with chemical 
experiments and medical prescriptions. 

This intimate union of erudition and faith continued 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 33 


in the Latin world. Theology became more and more 
a process of deification of the principles or agents dis- 
covered by science and a worship of time regarded as 
the first cause, the stars whose course determined the 
events of this world, the four elements whose innumer- 
able combinations produced the natural phenomena, 
and especially the sun which preserved heat, fertility 
and life. The dogmas of the mysteries of Mithra were, 
to a certain extent, the religious expression of Roman 
physics and astronomy. In all forms of pantheiam the 
knowledge of nature appears to be inseparable from 
that of God.'5 Art itself complied more and more 
with the tendency to express erudite ideas by subtle 
symbolism, and it represented in allegorical figures the 
relations of divine powers and cosmic forces, like the 
sky, the earth, the ocean, the planets, the constellations 
and the winds. The sculptors engraved on stone every- 
thing man thought and taught. In a general way the 
belief prevailed that redemption and salvation depended 
on the revelation of certain truths, on a knowledge of 
the gods, of the world and of our person, and piety 
became gnosis.'® 

But, you will say, since in the classic age philosophy 
also claimed to lead to morality through instruction 
and to acquaint man with the supreme good, why did 
it yield to Oriental religions that were in reality neither 
original nor innovating? Quite right, and if a power- 
ful rationalist school, possessed of a good critical 
method, had led the minds, we may believe that it 
would have checked the invasion of the barbarian mys- 
teries or at least limited their field of action. However, 
as has frequently been pointed out, even in ancient — 
Greece the philosophic critics had very little hold on 


34 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


popular religion obstinately faithful to its inherited 
superstitious forms. But how many second century 
minds shared Lucian’s skepticism in regard to the dog- 
matic systems! The various sects were fighting each 
other for ever so long without convincing one another 
of their alleged error. The satirist of Samosata en- 
joyed opposing their exclusive pretensions while he 
himself reclined on the “soft pillow of doubt.” But 
only intelligent minds could delight in doubt or sur- 
render to it; the masses wanted certainties. There was 
nothing to revive confidence in the power of a decrepit 
and threadbare science. No great discovery trans- 
formed the conception of the universe. Nature no 
longer betrayed her secrets, the earth remained unex- 
plored and the past inscrutable. Every branch of 
knowledge was forgotten. The world cursed with 
sterility, could but repeat itself; it had the poignant 
appreciation of its own decay and impotence. Tired 
of fruitless researches, the mind surrendered to the 
necessity of believing. Since the intellect was unable 
to formulate a consistent rule of life faith alone could 
supply it, and the multitudes gravitated toward the 
temples, where the truths taught to man in earlier 
days by the Oriental gods were revealed. The stanch 
adherence of past generations to beliefs and rites of 
unlimited antiquity seemed to guarantee their truth and 
efficacy. This current was so strong that philosophy 
itself was swept toward mysticism and the neo-Platonist 
school became a theurgy. 

The Oriental mysteries, then, could stir the soul by 
arousing admiration and terror, pity and enthusiasm in 
turn. They gave the intellect the illusion of learned 
depth and absolute certainty and finally—our third 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 35 


point—they satisfied conscience as well as passion and 
reason. Among the complex causes that guaranteed 
their domination, this was without doubt the most 
effective. 

In every period of their history the Romans, unlike 
the Greeks in this respect, judged theories and insti- 
tutions especially by their practical results. They al- 
ways had a soldier’s and business man’s contempt for 
metaphysicians. It is a matter of frequent observation 
that the philosophy of the Latin world neglected meta- 
physical speculations and concentrated its attention on 
morals, just as later the Roman church left to the subtle 
Hellenes the interminable controversies over the es- 
sence of the divine logos and the double nature of 
Christ. Questions that could rouse and divide her were 
those having a direct application to life, like the doc- 
trine of grace. 

The old religion of the Romans had to respond to 
this demand of their genius. Its poverty was honest.’7 
Its mythology did not possess the poetic charm of that 
of Greece, nor did its gods have the imperishable beauty 
of the Olympians, but they were more moral, or at least 
pretended to be. A large number were simply personi- 
fied qualities, like chastity and piety. With the aid of 
the censors they imposed the practice of the national 
virtues, that is to say of the qualities useful to society, 
temperance, courage, chastity, obedience to parents and 
magistrates, reverence for the oath and the law, in fact, 
the practice of every form of patriotism. During the 
last century of the republic the pontiff Scaevola, one 
of the foremost men of his time, rejected as futile the 
divinities of fable and poetry, as superfluous or ob- 
noxious those of the philosophers and the exegetists, 


36 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


and reserved all his favors for those of the statesmen, 
as the only ones fit for the people.t8 These were the 
ones protecting the old customs, traditions and fre- 
quently even the old privileges. But in the perpetual 
flux of things conservatism ever carries with it a germ 
of death. Just as the law failed to maintain the in- 
tegrity of ancient principles, like the absolute power of 
the father of the family, principles that were no longer 
in keeping with the social realities, so religion wit- 
nessed the foundering of a system of ethics contrary 
to the moral code that had slowly been established. 
The idea of collective responsibility contained in a num- 
ber of beliefs is one instance. If a vestal violated her 
vow of chastity the divinity sent a pest that ceased only 
on the day the culprit was punished. Sometimes the 
angry heavens granted victory to the army only on 
condition that a general or soldier dedicate himself to 
the infernal gods as an expiatory victim. However, 
through the influence of the philosophers and the jur- 
ists the conviction slowly gained ground that each one 
was responsible for his own misdeeds, and that it was 
not equitable to make a whole city suffer for the crime 
of an individual. People ceased to admit that the gods 
crushed the good as well as the wicked in one punish- 
ment. Often, also, the divine anger was thought to 
be as ridiculous in its manifestations as in its cause. 
The rural superstitions of the country districts of La- 
tium continued to live in the pontifical code of the 
Roman people. Ifa lamb with two heads or a colt with — 
five legs was born, solemn supplications were pre- 
scribed to avert the misfortunes foreboded by those 
terrifying prodigies.’ 

All these puerile and monstrous beliefs that burdened 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 37 


the religion of the Latins had thrown it into disrepute. 
Its morality no longer responded to the new conception 
of justice beginning to prevail. As a rule Rome rem- 
edied the poverty of her theology and ritual by taking 
what she needed from the Greeks. But here this re- 
source failed her because the poetic, artistic and even 
intellectual religion of the Greeks was hardly moral. 
And the fables of a mythology jeered at by the philos- 
ophers, parodied on the stage and put to verse by liber- 
tine poets were anything but edifying. 

Moreover—this was its second weakness—whatever 
morality it demanded of a pious man went unrewarded. 
People no longer believed that the gods continually 
intervened in the affairs of men to reveal hidden crimes 
and to punish triumphant vice, or that Jupiter would 
hurl his thunderbolt to crush the perjurer. At the 
time of the proscriptions and the civil wars under Nero 
or Commodus it was more than plain that power and 
possessions were for the strongest, the ablest or even 
the luckiest, and not for the wisest or the most pious. 
The idea of reward or punishment beyond the grave 
found little credit. The notions of future life were 
hazy, uncertain, doubtful and contradictory. Every- 
body knows Juvenal’s famous lines: “That there are 
manes, a subterranean kingdom, a ferryman with a 
long pole, and black frogs in the whirlpools of the 
Styx; that so many thousand men could cross the 
waves in a single boat, to-day even children refuse to 
believe:({2° 

After the fall of the republic indifference spread, the 
temples were abandoned and threatened to tumble into 
ruins, the clergy found it difficult to recruit members, 
the festivities, once so popular, fell into desuetude, and 


38 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Varro, at the beginning of his Antiquities, expressed 
his fear lest “the gods might perish, not from the blows 
of foreign enemies, but from very neglect on the part 
of the citizens.”2! It is well known that Augustus, 
prompted by political rather than by religious reasons, 
attempted to revive the dying religion. His religious 
reforms stood in close relation to his moral legislation 
and the establishment of the imperial dignity. Their 
tendency was to bring the people back to the pious 
practice of ancient virtues but also to chain them to 
the new political order. ‘The alliance of throne and 
altar in Europe dates from that time., 

This attempted reform failed entirely. Making re- 
ligion an auxiliary to moral policing is not a means of 
establishing its empire over souls. Formal reverence 
for the official gods is not incompatible with absolute 
and practical skepticism. The restoration attempted 
by Augustus is nevertheless very characteristic be- 
cause it is so. consistent with the Roman spirit which 
by temperament and tradition demanded that religion 
should support morality and the state. 

The Asiatic religions fulfilled the requirements. The 
change of régime, although unwelcome, brought about 
a change of religion. The increasing tendency of 
Ceesarism toward absolute monarchy made it lean more 
and more upon the Oriental clergy. True to the tra- 
ditions of the Achemenides and the Pharaohs, those 
priests preached doctrines tending to elevate the sov- 
ereign above humanity, and they supplied the em- 
perors with dogmatic justification for their despotism.?? 

It is a noteworthy fact that the rulers who most 
loudly proclaimed their autocratic pretentions, like Do- 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 39 


mitian and Commodus, were also those that favored 
foreign creeds most openly. 

But his selfish support merely sanctioned a power 
already established. The propaganda of the Oriental 
religions was originally democratic and sometimes even 
revolutionary like the Isis worship. Step by step they 
advanced, always reaching higher social classes and ap- 
pealing to popular conscience rather than to the zeal of 
functionaries. 

As a matter of fact all these religions, except that of 
Mithra, seem at first sight to be far less austere than 
the Roman creed. We shall have occasion to note that 
they contained coarse and immodest fables and atro- 
cious or vile rites. The Egyptian gods were expelled 
from Rome by Augustus and Tiberius on the charge 
of being immoral, but they were called immoral prin- 
cipally because they opposed a certain conception of 
the social order. They gave little attention to the public 
interest but attached considerable importance to the 
inner life and consequently to the value of the indi- 
vidual. Two new things, in particular, were brought to 
Italy by the Oriental priests: mysterious methods of 
purification, by which they claimed to wash away the 
impurities of the soul, and the assurance that a blessed 
immortality would be the reward of piety.?3 

These religions pretended to restore lost purity?4 to 
the soul either through the performance of ritual cere- 
monies or through mortifications and penance. They 
had a series of ablutions and lustrations supposed to 
restore original innocence to the mystic. He had to wash 
himself in the sacred water according to certain pre- 
scribed forms. This was really a magic rite, because 
bodily purity acted sympathetically upon the soul, or 


40 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


else it was a real spiritual disinfection with the water 
driving out the evil spirits that had caused pollution. 
The votary, again, might drink or besprinkle himself 
‘with the blood of a slaughtered victim or of the priests 
themselves, in which case the prevailing idea was that 
the liquid circulating in the veins was a vivifying prin- 
ciple capable of imparting a new existence.?5 These 
and similar rites? used in the mysteries were supposed 
to regenerate the initated person and to restore him to 
an immaculate and incorruptible life.?7 

Purgation of the soul was not effected solely by 
liturgic acts but also by self-denial and suffering.?8 
The meaning of the term exrpiatio changed. Expiation, 
or atonement, was no longer accomplished by the exact 
performance of certain ceremonies pleasing to the gods 
and required by a sacred code like a penalty for dam- 
ages, but by privation and personal suffering. Ab- 
stinence, which prevented the introduction of deadly’ 
elements into the system, and chastity, which preserved 
man from pollution and debility, became means of 
getting rid of the domination of the evil powers and of 
regaining heavenly favor.29 Macerations, laborious 
pilgrimages, public confessions, sometimes flagellations 
and mutilations, in fact all forms of penance and morti- 
fications uplifted the fallen man and brought him 
nearer to the gods. In Phrygia a sinner would write 
his sin and the punishment he suffered upon a stela for 
every one to see and would return thanks to heaven 
that his prayer of repentance had been heard.3° The | 
Syrian, who had offended his goddess by eating her 
sacred fish, dressed in sordid rags, covered himself with 
a sack and sat in the public highway humbly to pro- 
claim his misdeed in order to obtain forgiveness.3! 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 41 


“Three times, in the depths of winter,’ says Juvenal, 
“the devotee of Isis will dive into the chilly waters of 
the Tiber, and shivering with cold, will drag herself 
around the temple upon her bleeding knees; if the 
goddess commands, she will go to the outskirts of 
Egypt to take water from the Nile and empty it within 
the sanctuary.’’3? This shows the introduction into 
Europe of Oriental asceticism. 

But there were impious acts and impure passions 
that contaminated and defiled the soul. Since this 
infection could be destroyed only by expiations pre- 
scribed by the gods, the extent of the sin and the 
character of the necessary penance had to be esti- 
mated. It was the priest’s prerogative to judge the 
misdeeds and to impose the penalties. This circum- 
stance gave the clergy a very different character from 
the one it had at Rome. The priest was no longer 
simply the guardian of sacred traditions, the inter- 
mediary between man or the state and the gods, but 
also a spiritual guide. He taught his flock the long 
series of obligations and restrictions for shielding their 
weakness from the attacks of evil spirits. He knew 
how to quiet remorse and scruples, and to restore the 
sinner to spiritual calm. Being versed in sacred knowl- 
edge, he had the power of reconciling the gods. Fre- 
quent sacred repasts maintained a spirit of fellowship 
among the mystics of Cybele, Mithra or the Baals,33 
and a daily service unceasingly revived the faith of 
the Isis worshipers. In consequence, the clergy were 
entirely absorbed in their holy office and lived only for 
and by their temples. Unlike the sacerdotal colleges 
of Rome in which the secular and religious functions 
were not yet clearly differentiated,34+ they were not an 


42 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


administrative commission ruling the sacred affairs of 
the state under the supervision of the senate; they 
formed what might almost be called a caste of recluses 
distinguished from ordinary men by their insignia, garb, 
habits and food, and constituting an independent body 
with a hierarchy, formulary and even councils of their 
own.35 They did not return to every-day duties as 
private citizens or to the direction of public affairs as 
magistrates as the ancient pontiffs had done after the 
solemn festival service. 

We can readily understand that these beliefs and in- 
stitutions were bound to establish the Oriental religions 
and their priests on a strong basis. Their influence 
must have been especially powerful at the time of the 
Cesars. The laxity of morals at the beginning of our 
era has been exaggerated but it was real. Many un- 
healthy symptoms told of a profound moral anarchy 
weighing on a weakened and irresolute society. The 
farther we go toward the end of the empire the more 
its energy seems to fail and the character of men to 
weaken. The number of strong healthy minds in- 
capable of a lasting aberration and without need of 
guidance or comfort was growing ever smaller. We 
note the spread of that feeling of exhaustion and debil- 
ity which follows the aberrations of passion, and the 
same weakness that led to crime impelled men to seek 
absolution in the formal practices of asceticism. They 
applied to the Oriental priests for spiritual remedies. 

People flattered themselves that by performing the 
rites they would attain a condition of felicity after 
death. All barbarian mysteries pretended to reveal to 
their adherents the secret of blessed immortality. Par- 
ticipation in the occult ceremonies of the sect was a 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 43 


chief means of salvation.3° The vague and dishearten- 
ing beliefs of ancient paganism in regard to life after 
death were transformed into the firm hope of a well- 
defined form of happiness.37 

This faith in a personal survival of the soul and even 
of the body was based upon a strong instinct of human 
nature, the instinct of self-preservation. Social and 
moral conditions in the empire during its decline gave 
it greater strength than it had ever possessed before.3® 
The third century saw so much suffering, anguish and 
violence, so much unnecessary ruin and so many un- 
punished crimes, that the Roman world took refuge in 
the expectation of a better existence in which all the 
iniquity of this world would be retrieved. ‘No earthly 
hope brightened life.; The tyranny of a corrupt bu- 
reaucracy choked all disposition for political progress. 
Science stagnated and revealed no more unknown 
truths. Growing poverty discouraged the spirit of 
enterprise. The idea gained ground that humanity 
was afflicted with incurable decay, that nature was 
approaching her doom and that the end of world was 
near.39 We must remember all these causes of dis- 
couragement and despondency to understand the power 
of the idea, expressed so frequently, that the spirit 
animating man was forced by bitter necessity to im- 
prison itself in matter and that it was delivered from 
its carnal captivity by death. In the heavy atmosphere 
of a period of oppression and impotence the dejected 
soul longed with incredible ardor to fly to the radiant 
abode of heaven. : 

To recapitulate, the Oriental religions acted upon 
the senses, the intellect and the conscience at the same 
time, and therefore gained a hold on the entire man. 


44 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Compared with the ancient creeds, they appear to have 
offered greater beauty of ritual, greater truth of doc- 
trine and a far superior morality. The imposing cere- 
monial of their festivities and the alternating pomp and 
sensuality, gloom and exaltation of their services ap- 
pealed especially to the simple and the humble, while 
the progressive revelation of ancient wisdom, inherited 
from the old and distant Orient, captivated the cul- 
tured mind. The emotions excited by these religions 
and the consolations offered strongly attracted the wo- 
men, who were the most fervent and generous fol- 
lowers and most passionate propagandists? of the re- 
ligions of Isis and Cybele. Mithra was worshiped 
almost exclusively by men, whom he subjected to a 
rigid moral discipline. Thus souls were gained by the 
promise of spiritual purification and the prospect of 
eternal happiness. 

The worship of the Roman gods was a civic duty, the 
worship of the foreign gods the expression of a per- 
sonal belief. The latter were the objects of the 
thoughts, feelings and intimate aspirations of the in- 
dividual, not merely of the traditional and, one might 
say, functional adoration of the citizen. The ancient 
municipal devotions were connected with a number of 
earthly interests that helped to support each other. 
They were one of various forms of family spirit and 
patriotism and guaranteed the prosperity of the com- 
munity. The Oriental mysteries, directing the will 
toward an ideal goal and exalting the inner spirit, were - 
less mindful of economic utility, but they could produce 
that vibration of the moral being that caused emotions, 
stronger than any rational faculty, to gush forth from 
the depths of the soul. Through a sudden illumination 


WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 45 


they furnished the intuition of a spiritual life whose 
intensity made all material happiness appear insipid 
and contemptible. This stirring appeal of supernatural 
life made the propaganda irresistible. The same ardent 
enthusiasm guaranteed at the same time the uncon- 
tested domination of neo-Platonism among the philos- 
ophers. Antiquity expired and a new era was born. 


ASIA MINOR. 


HE first Oriental religion adopted by the Romans 

was that of the goddess of Phrygia, whom the 
people of Pessinus and Mount Ida worshiped, and who 
received the name of Magna Mater deum Idea in the 
Occident. Its history in Italy covers six centuries, and 
we can trace each phase of the transformation that 
changed it in the course of time from a collection of 
very primitive nature beliefs into a system of spiritual- 
ized mysteries used by some as a weapon against Chris- 
tianity. We shall now endeavor to outline the succes- 
sive phases of that slow metamorphosis. 
This religion is the only one whose success in the 
Latin world was caused originally by a mere chance 
circumstance. In 205 B. C., when Hannibal, van- 
quished but still threatening, made his last stand in 
the mountains of Bruttium, repeated torrents of stones 
frightened the Roman people. When the books were 
officially consulted in regard to this prodigy they prom- 
ised that the enemy would be driven from Italy if the 
Great Mother of Ida could be brought to Rome. No- 
body but the Sibyls themselves had the power of avert-. 
ing the evils prophesied by them. They had come to 
Italy from Asia Minor, and in this critical situation 
their sacred poem recommended the practice of their 
native religion as a remedy. In token of his friend- 


ASIA MINOR. 47 


ship, King Attalus presented the ambassadors of the 
senate with the black aerolite, supposed to be the abode 
of the goddess, that this ruler had shortly before trans- 
ferred from Pessinus to Pergamum. According to the 
mandate of the oracle the stone was received at Ostia 
by the best citizen of the land, an honor accorded to 
Scipio Nasica—and carried by the most esteemed ma- 
trons to the Palatine, where, hailed by the cheers of 
the multitude and surrounded by fumes of incense, it 
was solemnly installed (Nones of April, 204). This 
triumphal entry was later glorified by marvelous leg- 
ends, and the poets told of edifying miracles that had 
occurred during Cybele’s voyage. In the same year 
Scipio transferred the seat of war to Africa, and Han- 
nibal, compelled to meet him there, was beaten at 
Zama. The prediction of the Sybils had come true 
and Rome was rid of the long Punic terror. The for- 
eign goddess was honored in recognition of the ser- 
vice she had rendered. A temple was erected to her 
on the summit of the Palatine, and every year a cele- 
bration enhanced by scenic plays, the Judi Megalenses, 
commemorated the date of dedication of the sanctuary 
and the arrival of the goddess (April 4th-10th). 
What was this Asiatic religion that had suddenly 
been transferred into the heart of Rome by an extra- 
ordinary circumstance? Even then it could look back 
upon a long period of development. It combined be- 
liefs of various origin. It contained primitive usages 
of the religion of Anatolia, some of which have sur- 
vived to this day in spite of Christianity and Islam. 
Like the Kizil-Bash peasants of to-day, the ancient in- 
habitants of the peninsula met on the summits of moun- 
tains covered with woods no ax had desecrated, and 


48 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


celebrated their festal days.1. They believed that Cybele 
resided on the high summits of Ida and Berecyntus, 
and the perennial pines, in conjunction with the pro- 
lific and early maturing almond tree, were the sacred 
trees of Attis. Besides trees, the country people wor- 
shiped stones, rocks or meteors that had fallen from 
the sky like the one taken from Pessinus to Pergamum 
and thence to Rome. They also venerated certain ani- 
mals, especially the most powerful of them all, the lion, 
who may at one time have been the totem of savage 
tribes.2. In mythology as well as in art the lion re- 
mained the riding or driving animal of the Great 
Mother. Their conception of the divinity was indis- 
tinct and impersonal. A goddess of the earth, called 
Ma or Cybele, was revered as the fecund mother of 
all things, the ‘mistress of the wild beasts’’3 that in- 
habit the woods. A god Attis, or Papas, was regarded 
as her husband, but the first place in this divine house- 
hold belonged to the woman, a reminiscence of the 
period of matriarchy.4 

When the Phrygians at a very early period came 
from Thrace and inserted themselves like a wedge in 
the old Anatolian races, they adopted the vague deities 
of their new country by identifying them with their 
own, after the habit of pagan nations. Thus Attis be- 
came one with the Dionysus-Sabazius of the con- 
querors, or at least assumed some of his characteristics. 
This Thracian Dionysus was a god of vegetation. Fou- 
cart has thus admirably pictured his savage nature: 
“Wooded summits, deep oak and pine forests, ivy-clad 
caverns were at all times his favorite haunts. Mortals 
who were anxious to know the powerful divinity ruling 
these solitudes had to observe the life of his kingdom, 


ASIA MINOR. 49 


and to guess the god’s nature from the phenomena 
through which he manifested his power. Seeing the 
creeks descend in noisy foaming cascades, or hearing 
the roaring of steers in the uplands and the strange 
sounds of the wind-beaten forests, the Thracians 
thought they heard the voice and the calls of the lord 
of that empire, and imagined a god who was fond 
of extravagant leaps and of wild roaming over the 
wooded mountains. This conception inspired their re- 
ligion, for the surest way for mortals to ingratiate 
themselves with a divinity was to imitate him, and as 
far as possible to make their lives resemble his. For 
this reason the Thracians endeavored to attain the 
divine delirium that transported their Dionysus, and 
hoped to realize their purpose by following their in- 
visible yet ever-present lord in his chase over the 
mountains.”’5 

In the Phrygian religion we find the same beliefs 
and rites, scarcely modified at all, with the one differ- 
ence that Attis, the god of vegetation, was united to the 
goddess of the earth instead of living “in sullen lone- 
liness.” When the tempest was beating the forests 
of the Berecyntus or Ida, it was Cybele traveling about 
in her car drawn by roaring lions mourning her lover’s 
death. A crowd of worshipers followed her through 
woods and thickets, mingling their shouts with the 
shrill sound of flutes, with the dull beat of tambourines, 
with the rattling of castanets and the dissonance of 
brass cymbals. Intoxicated with shouting and with 
uproar of the instruments, excited by their impetuous 
advance, breathless and panting, they surrendered to 
the raptures of a sacred enthusiasm. Catullus has left 
us a dramatic description of this divine ecstasy.® 


50 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


The religion of Phrygia was perhaps even more vio- 
lent than that of Thrace. The climate of the Anatolian 
uplands is one of extremes. Its winters are rough, 
long and cold, the spring rains suddenly develop a 
vigorous vegetation that is scorched by the hot sum- 
mer sun. The abrupt contrasts of a nature generous 
and sterile, radiant and bleak in turn, caused excesses 
of sadness and joy that were unknown in temperate 
and smiling regions, where the ground was never bur- 
ied under snow nor scorched by the sun. The Phryg- 
ians mourned the long agony and death of the vege- 
tation, but when the verdure reappeared in March they 
surrendered to the excitement of a tumultuous joy. 
In Asia savage rites that had been unknown in Thrace 
or practiced in milder form expressed the vehemence 
of those opposing feelings. In the midst of their or- 
gies, and after wild dances, some of the worshipers 
voluntarily wounded themselves and, becoming intoxi- 
cated with the view of the blood, with which they be- 
sprinkled their altars, they believed they were uniting 
themselves with their divinity. Or else, arriving at a 
paroxysm of frenzy, they sacrificed their virility to the 
gods as certain Russian dissenters still do to-day. These 
men became priests of Cybele and were called Galli. 
Violent ecstasis was always an endemic disease in 
Phrygia. As late as the Antonines, montanist proph- 
ets that arose in that country attempted to introduce it 
into Christianity. 

All these excessive and degrading demonstrations 
of an extreme worship must not cause us to slight the 
power of the feeling that inspired it. The sacred 
ecstasy, the voluntary mutilations and the eagerly 
sought sufferings manifested an ardent longing for 


ASIA MINOR. 51 


deliverance from subjection to carnal instincts, and a 
fervent desire to free the soul from the bonds of mat- 
ter. The ascetic tendencies went so far as to create 
a kind of begging monachism—the métragyrtes. They 
also harmonized with some of the ideas of renunciation 
taught by Greek philosophy, and at an early period 
Hellenic theologians took an interest in this devotion 
that attracted and repelled them at the same time. T1- 
motheus the Eumolpid, who was one of the founders 
of the Alexandrian religion of Serapis, derived the in- 
Spiration for his essays on religious reform, among 
other sources, from the ancient Phrygian myths. Those 
thinkers undoubtedly succeeded in making the priests 
of Pessinus themselves admit many speculations quite 
foreign to the old Anatolian nature worship. The 
votaries of Cybele began at a very remote period to 
practise “mysteries”? in which the initiates were made 
acquainted, by degrees, with a wisdom that was always 
considered divine, but underwent peculiar variations 
in the course of time. 
hcie ek 

Such is the religion which the rough Romans of the 
Punic wars accepted and adopted. Hidden under theo- 
logical and cosmological doctrines it contained an an- 
cient stock of very primitive and coarse religious ideas, 
such as the worship of trees, stones and animals. Be- 
sides this superstitious fetichism it involved ceremonies 
that were both sensual and ribald, including all the 
wild and mystic rites of the bacchanalia which the 
public authorities were to prohibit a few years later. 

When the senate became better acquainted with the 
divinity imposed upon it by the Sibyls, it must have 
been quite embarrassed by the present of King Attalus. 


ne THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


The enthusiastic transports and the somber fanaticism 
of the Phrygian worship contrasted violently with the 
calm dignity and respectable reserve of the official re- 
ligion, and excited the minds of the people to a dan- 
gerous degree. The emasculated Galli were the objects 
of contempt and disgust and what in their own eyes 
was a meritorious act was made a crime punishable 
by law, at least under the empire. The authorities 
hesitated between the respect due to the powerful 
goddess that had delivered Rome from the Cartha- 
ginians and the reverence for the mos maiorum. They 
solved the difficulty by completely isolating the new 
religion in order to prevent its contagion. All citizens 
were forbidden to join the priesthood of the foreign 
goddess or to participate in her sacred orgies. The 
barbarous rites according to which the Great Mother 
was to be worshiped were performed by Phrygian 
priests and priestesses. The holidays celebrated in her 
honor by the entire nation, the Megalensia, contained 
no Oriental feature and were organized in conformity 
with Roman traditions. 

A characteristic anecdote told by Diodorus? shows 
what the public feeling was towards this Asiatic wor- 
ship at the end of the republic. In Pompey’s time a 
high priest from Pessinus came to Rome, presented 
himself at the forum in his sacerdotal garb, a golden 
diadem and a long embroidered robe—and pretending 
that the statue of his goddess had been profaned de- 
manded public expiation. But a tribune forbade him 
to wear the royal crown, and the populace rose against 
him in a mob and compelled him to seek refuge in 
his house. .Although apologies were made later, this 
story shows how little the people of that period felt 


ASIA MINOR. 53 


the veneration that attached to Cybele and her clergy 
after a century had passed. 

Kept closely under control, the Phrygian worship 
led an obscure existence until the establishment of the 
empire. That closed the first period of its history at 
Rome. It attracted attention only on certain holidays, 
when -its priests marched the streets in procession, 
dressed in motley costumes, loaded with heavy jewelry, 
and beating tambourines. On those days the senate 
granted them the right to go from house to house to 
collect funds for their temples. The remainder of the 
year they confined themselves to the sacred enclosure 
of the Palatine, celebrating foreign ceremonies in a for- 
eign language. They aroused so little notice during 
this period that almost nothing is known of their prac- 
tices or of their creed. It has even been maintained 
that Attis was not worshiped together with his com- 
panion, the Great Mother, during the times of the re- 
public, but this is undoubtedly wrong, because the two 
persons of this divine couple must have been as in- 
separable in the ritual as they were in the myths.’° 

But the Phrygian religion kept alive in spite of police 
surveillance, in spite of precautions and prejudices; a 
breach had been made in the cracked wall of the old 
Roman principles, through which the entire Orient 
finally gained ingress. 

Directly after the fall of the republic a second divin- 
ity from Asia Minor, closely related to the Great 
Mother, became established in the capital. During the 
warts against Mithridates the Roman soldiers learned 
to revere Ma, the great goddess of the two Comanas, 
who was worshiped by a whole people of hierodules in 
the ravines of the Taurus and along the banks of the 


54 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Iris. Like Cybele she was an ancient Anatolian divin- 
ity and personified fertile nature. Her worship, how- 
ever, had not felt the influence of Thrace, but rather 
that of the Semites and the Persians,'! like the entire 
religion of Cappadocia. It is certain that she was iden- 
tical with the Anahita of the Mazdeans, who was of 
much the same nature. 

The rites of her cult were even more sanguinary 
and savage than those of Pessinus, and she had as- 
sumed or preserved a warlike character that gave her 
a resemblance to the Italian Bellona. The dictator 
Sulla, to whom this invincible goddess of combats had 
appeared in a dream, was prompted by his superstition 
to introduce her worship into Rome. The terrible cere- 
monies connected with it produced a deep impression. 
Clad in black robes, her “fanatics,” as they were called, 
would turn round and round to the sound of drums 
and trumpets, with their long, loose hair streaming, 
and when vertigo seized them and a state of anesthesia 
was attained, they would strike their arms and bodies 
ereat blows with swords and axes. The view of the 
running blood excited them, and they besprinkled the 
statue of the goddess and her votaries with it, or even 
drank it. Finally a prophetic delirium would over- 
come them, and they foretold the future. 

This ferocious worship aroused curiosity at first, but 
it never gained great consideration. It appears that 
the Cappadocian Bellona joined the number of divin- 
ities that were subordinated to the Magna Mater and, 
as the texts put it, became her follower (pedisequa).'? 
The brief popularity enjoyed by this exotic M@ at the 
beginning of our era shows, nevertheless, the growing 


ASIA MINOR. 55 


influence of the Orient, and of the religions of Asia 
Minor in particular. 

After the establishment of the empire the apprehen- 
sive distrust in which the worship of Cybele and Attis 
had been held gave way to marked favor and the orig- 
inal restrictions were withdrawn. ‘Thereafter Roman 
citizens were chosen for arciigalli, and the holidays of 
the Phrygian deities were solemnly and officially cele- 
brated in Italy with even more pomp than had been 
displayed at Pessinus. 

According to Johannes Lydus, the Emperor Claudius 
was the author of this change. Doubts have been ex- 
pressed as to the correctness of the statement made by 
this second-rate compiler, and it has been claimed that 
the transformation in question took place under the 
Antonines. This is erroneous. The testimony of in- 
scriptions corroborates that of the Byzantine writer.'3 
In spite of his love of archaism, it was Claudius who 
permitted this innovation to be made, and we believe 
that we can divine the motives of his action. 

Under his predecessor, Caligula, the worship of Isis 
had been authorized after a long resistance. Its stir- 
ring festivities and imposing processions gained con- 
siderable popularity. This competition must have been 
disastrous to the priests of the Magna Mater, who were 
secluded in their temple on the Palatine, and Caligula’s 
successor could not but grant to the Phrygian goddess, 
so long established in the city, the favor accorded the 
Egyptian divinity who had been admitted into Rome 
but very recently. In this way Claudius prevented too 
great an ascendency in Italy of this second stranger 
and supplied a distributary to the current of popular 
superstition. Isis must have been held under great 


56 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


suspicion by a ruler who clung to old national institu- 
tions.'4 

The Emperor Claudius introduced a new cycle of 
holidays that were celebrated from March 15th to 
March 27th, the beginning of spring at the time of the 
revival of vegetation, personified in Attis. The various 
acts of this grand mystic drama are tolerably well 
known. The prelude was a procession of cannophori 
or reed-bearers on the fifteenth ; undoubtedly they com- 
memorated Cybele’s discovery of Attis, who, according 
to the legends, had been exposed while a child on the 
banks of the Sangarius, the largest river of Phrygia, 
or else this ceremony may have been the transforma- 
tion of an ancient phallephory intended to guarantee 
the fertility of the fields.1t5 The ceremonies proper 
began with the equinox. A pine was felled and trans- 
ferred to the temple of the Palatine by a brotherhood 
that owed to this function its name of “tree-bearers” 
(dendrophori). Wrapped like a corpse in woolen 
bands and garlands of violets, this pine represented 
Attis dead. This god was originally only the spirit of 
the plants, and the honors given to the ‘“March-tree’’?® 
in front of the imperial palace perpetuated a very an- 
cient agrarian rite of the Phrygian peasants. The next 
day was a day of sadness and abstinence on which the 
believers fasted and mourned the defunct god. The 
twenty-fourth bore the significant name of Sanguis in 
the calendars. We know that it was the celebration 
of the funeral of Attis, whose manes were appeased 
by means of libations of blood, as was done for any 
mortal. Mingling their piercing cries with the shrill 
sound of flutes, the Galli flagellated themselves and 
cut their flesh, and neophytes performed the supreme 


ASIA MINOR. 57 


sacrifice with the aid of a sharp stone, being insensible 
to pain in their frenzy.‘7 Then followed a mysterious 
vigil during which the mystic was supposed to be united 
as a new Attis with the great goddess.*8 On March 
25th there was a sudden transition from the shouts of 
despair to a delirious jubilation, the Hilaria. With 
springtime Attis awoke from his sleep of death, and 
the joy created by his resurrection burst out in wild 
merry-making, wanton masquerades, and luxurious 
banquets. After twenty-four hours of an indispensable 
rest (requietio ), the festivities wound up, on the twenty- 
seventh, with a long and gorgeous procession through 
the streets of Rome and surrounding country districts. 
Under a constant rain of flowers the silver statue of 
Cybele was taken to the river Almo and bathed and 
purified according to an ancient rite (lavatio). 

The worship of the Mother of the Gods had pene- 
trated into the Hellenic countries long before it was 
received at Rome, but in Greece it assumed a peculiar 
form and lost most of its barbarous character. The 
Greek mind felt an unconquerable aversion to the du- 
bious nature of Attis. The Magna Mater, who is 
thoroughly different from her Hellenized sister, pene- 
trated into all Latin provinces and imposed herself 
upon them with the Roman religion. This was the 
case in Spain, Brittany, the Danubian countries, Africa 
and especially in Gaul.19 As late as the fourth century 
the car of the goddess drawn by steers was led in great 
state through the fields and vineyards of Autun in order 
to stimulate their fertility.2° In the provinces the den- 
drophori, who carried the sacred pine in the spring 
festivities, formed associations recognized by the state. 
These associations had charge of the work of our mod- 


58 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ern fire departments, besides their religious mission. 
In case of necessity these woodcutters and carpenters, 
who knew how to fell the divine tree of Attis, were 
also able to cut down the timbers of burning buildings. 
All over the empire religion and the brotherhoods con- 
nected with it were under the high supervision of the 
quindecimvirs of the capital, who gave the priests their 
insignia. The sacerdotal hierarchy and the rights 
granted to the priesthood and believers were minutely 
defined in a series of senate decrees. These Phrygian 
divinities who had achieved full naturalization and had 
been placed on the official list of gods, were adopted 
by the populations of the Occident as Roman gods 
together with the rest. This propagation was clearly 
different from that of any other Oriental religion, for 
here the action of the government aided the tendencies 
that attracted the devout masses to these Asiatic divin- 
ities. 

This popular zeal was the result of various causes. 
Ancient authors describe the impression produced upon 
the masses by those magnificent processions in which 
Cybele passed along on her car, preceded by musicians 
playing captivating melodies, by priests wearing gor- 
geous costumes covered with amulets, and by the long 
line of votaries and members of the fraternities, all 
barefoot and wearing their insignia. All this, however, 
created only a fleeting and exterior impression upon 
the neophyte, but as soon as he entered the temple a 
deeper sensation took hold of him. He heard the — 
pathetic story of the goddess seeking the body of her 
lover cut down in the prime of his life like the grass 
of the fields. He saw the bloody funeral services in 
which the cruel death of the young man was mourned, 


ASIA MINOR. 59 


and heard the joyful hymns of triumph, and the gay 
songs that greeted his return to life. By a skilfully 
arranged gradation of feelings the onlookers were up- 
lifted to a state of rapturous ecstasy. Feminine devo- 
tion in particular found encouragement and enjoyment 
in these ceremonies, and the Great Mother, the fecund 
and generous goddess, was always especially worshiped 
by the women. 

Moreover, people founded great hopes on the pious 
practice of this religion. Like the Thracians, the Phryg- 
ians began very early to believe in the immortality of 
the soul. Just as Attis died and came to life again 
every year, these believers were to be born to new life 
after their death. One of the sacred hymns said: 
“Take courage, oh mystics, because the god is saved; 
and for you also will come salvation from your trials.”’?! 
Even the funeral ceremonies were affected by the 
strength of that belief. In some cities, especially at 
Amphipolis in Macedonia, graves have been found 
adorned with earthenware statuettes representing the 
shepherd Attis ;?2 and even in Germany the grave- 
stones are frequently decorated with the figure of a 
young man in Oriental costume, leaning dejectedly upon 
a knotted stick (pedum), who represented the same 
Attis. We are ignorant of the conception of immor- 
tality held by the Oriental disciples of the Phrygian 
priests. Maybe, like the votaries of Sabazius, they 
believed that the blessed ones were permitted to par- 
ticipate with Hermes Psychopompos in a great ce- 
lestial feast, for which they were prepared by the 
sacred repasts of the mysteries.?3 


60 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Another agent in favor of this imported religion was, 
as we have stated above, the fact of its official recog- 
nition. This placed it in a privileged position among 
Oriental religions, at least at the beginning of the 
imperial régime. It enjoyed a toleration that was 
neither precarious nor limited; it was not subjected 
to arbitrary police measures nor to coercion on the 
part of magistrates; its fraternities were not continu- 
ally threatened with dissolution, nor its priests with 
expulsion. It was publicly authorized and endowed, 
its holidays were marked in the calendars of the pon- 
tiffs, its associations of dendrophori were organs of 
municipal life in Italy and in the provinces, and had 
a corporate entity. 

Therefore it is not surprising that other foreign re- 
ligions, after being transferred to Rome, sought to 
avert the dangers of an illicit existence by an alliance 
with the Great Mother. The religion of the latter fre- 
quently consented to agreements and compromises, 
from which it gained in reality as much as it gave up. 
In exchange for material advantages it acquired com- 
plete moral authority over the gods that accepted its 
protection. Thus Cybele and Attis absorbed a majority 
of the divinities from Asia Minor that had crossed the 
Tonian Sea. Their clergy undoubtedly intended to es- 
tablish a religion complex enough to enable the emi- 
grants from every part of the vast peninsula, slaves, 
merchants, soldiers, functionaries, scholars, in short, 
people of all classes of society, to find their national 
and favorite devotions in it. As a matter of fact no 
other Anatolian god could maintain his independence 
side by side with the deities of Pessinus.?4 

We do not know the internal development of the 


ASIA MINOR. 61 


Phrygian mysteries sufficiently to give details of the 
addition of each individual part. But we can prove that 
in the course of time certain religions were added to the 
one that had been practised in the temple of the Pala- 
tine ever since the republic. 

In the inscriptions of the fourth century, Attis bears 
the cognomen of menotyrannus. At that time this name 
was undoubtedly understood to mean “lord of the 
months,’ because Attis represented the sun who en- 
tered a new sign of the zodiac every month.?5 But 
that was not the original meaning of the term. “Men 
tyrannus’ appears with quite a different meaning in 
many inscriptions found in Asia Minor. Tyrannos,* 
“lord,” is a word taken by the Greeks from the Lydian, 
and the honorable title of “tyrant” was given to Men, 
an old barbarian divinity worshiped by all Phrygia and 
surrounding regions.2° The Anatolian tribes from 
Caria to the remotest mountains of Pontus worshiped 
a lunar god under that name who was supposed to rule 
not only the heavens but also the underworld, because 
the moon was frequently brought into connection with 
the somber kingdom of the dead. The growth of 
plants and the increase of cattle and poultry were 
ascribed to his celestial influence, and the villagers 
invoked his protection for their farms and their dis- 
trict. They also placed their rural burial grounds under 
the safeguard of this king of shadows. No god enjoyed 
greater popularity in the country districts. 

This powerful divinity penetrated into Greece at an 
early period. Among the mixed populations of the 
7Egean seaports, in the Pirzeus, at Rhodes, Delos and 
Thasos, religious associations for his worship were. 


* TUpavvos, 


62 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


founded. In Attica the presence of the cult can be 
traced back to the fourth century, and its monuments 
rival those of Cybele in number and variety. In the 
Latin Occident, however, no trace of it can be found, 
because it had been absorbed by the worship of Magna 
Mater. In Asia itself, Attis and Mén were sometimes 
considered identical, and this involved the Roman world 
in a complete confusion of those two persons, who in 
reality were very different. A marble statue discov- 
ered at Ostia represents Attis holding the lunar cres- 
cent, which was the characteristic emblem of Men. 
His assimilation to the “tyrant” of the infernal regions 
transformed the shepherd of Ida into a master of the 
underworld, an office that he combined with his former 
one as author of resurrection. 

A second title that was given to him reveals another 
influence. A certain Roman inscription is dedicated 
to Attis the Supreme.?7* This epithet is very signifi- 
cant. In Asia Minor “Hypsistos’ was the appellation 
used to designate the god of Israel.28 A number of 
pagan thiasi had arisen who, though not exactly sub- 
mitting to the practice of the synagogue, yet worshiped 
none but the Most High, the Supreme God, the Eternal 
God, God the Creator, to whom every mortal owed 
service. These must have been the attributes ascribed 
to Cybele’s companion by the author of the inscription, 
because the verse continues :} “To thee, who containest 
and maintainest all things.”29 Must we then believe 
that Hebraic monotheism had some influence upon the 
mysteries of the Great Mother? This 1s not at all 
improbable. We know that numerous Jewish colonies 
were established in Phrygia by the Seleucides, and that 


*”Arre: tWloTw, + Kal cuvéxovti 7d Tay, 


ASIA MINOR. 63 


these expatriated Jews agreed to certain compromises 
in order to conciliate their hereditary faith with that of 
the pagans in whose midst they lived. It is also pos- 
sible that the clergy of Pessinus suffered the ascendancy 
of the Biblical theology. Under the empire Attis and 
Cybele became the “almighty gods” (ommnipotentes) 
par excellence, and it is easy to see in this new con- 
ception a leaning upon Semitic or Christian doctrines, 
more probably upon Semitic ones.*° 

We shall now take up the difficult question of the 
influence of Judaism upon the mysteries during the 
Alexandrian period and at the beginning of the empire. 
Many scholars have endeavored to define the influence 
exercised by the pagan beliefs on those of the Jews; it 
has been shown how the Israelitic monotheism became 
Hellenized at Alexandria and how the Jewish propa- 
ganda attracted proselytes who revered the one God, 
without, however, observing all the prescriptions of the 
Mosaic law. But no successful researches have been 
made to ascertain how far paganism was modified 
through an infiltration of Biblical ideas. Such a modi- 
fication must necessarily have taken place to some ex- 
tent. A great number of Jewish colonies were scat- 
tered everywhere on the Mediterranean, and these were 
long animated with such an ardent spirit of proselytism 
that they were bound to impose some of their concep- 
tions on the pagans that surrounded them. The magical 
texts which are almost the only original literary docu- 
ments of paganism we possess, clearly reveal this mix- 
ture of Israelitic theology with that of other peoples. 
In them we frequently find names like Iao (Yahveh), 
Sabaoth, or the names of angels side by side with those 
of Egyptian or Greek divinities. Especially in Asia 


64 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Minor, where the Israelites formed a considerable and 
influential element of the population, an intermingling 
of the old native traditions and the religion of the 
strangers from the other side of the Taurus must have 
occurred. 

This mixture certainly took place in the mysteries 
of Sabazius, the Phrygian Jupiter or Dionysus.31 They 
were very similar to those of Attis, with whom he was 
frequently confounded. By means of an audacious 
etymology that dates back to the Hellenistic period, 
this old Thraco-Phrygian divinity has been identified 
with “Yahveh Zebaoth,” the Biblical “Lord of Hosts.” 
The corresponding expression* in the Septuagint has 
been regarded as the equivalent of the kurios Sabaziost 
of the barbarians. The latter was worshiped as the 
supreme, almighty and holy Lord. In the light of a 
new interpretation the purifications practised in the 
mysteries were believed to wipe out the hereditary im- 
purity of a guilty ancestor who had aroused the wrath 
of heaven against his posterity, much as the original 
sin with which Adam’s disobedience had stained the 
human race was to be wiped out. The custom ob- 
served by the votaries of Sabazius of dedicating votive 
hands which made the liturgic sign of benediction with 
the first three fingers extended (the benedictio latina 
of the church) was probably taken from the ritual of 
the Semitic temples through the agency of the Jews. 
The initiates believed, again like the Jews, that after 
death their good angel (angelus bonus) would lead 
them to the banquet of the eternally happy, and the 
everlasting joys of these banquets were anticipated on 
earth by the liturgic repasts. This celestial feast can 


* xtpios DaBawd, + KUpios DaBatros, 


—— 


ASIA MINOR. 65 


be seen in a fresco painting on the grave of a priest 
of Sabazius called Vincentius, who was buried in the 
Christian catacomb of Pretextatus, a strange fact for 
which no satisfactory explanation has as yet been fur- 
nished. Undoubtedly he belonged to a Jewish-pagan 
sect that admitted neophytes of every race to its mystic 
ceremonies. In fact, the church itself formed a kind 
of secret society sprung from the synagogue but dis- 
tinct from it, in which Gentiles and the Children of 
Israel joined in a common adoration. 

If it is a fact, then, that Judaism influenced the wor- 
ship of Sabazius, it is very probable that it influenced 
the cult of Cybele also, although in this case the in- 
fluence cannot be discerned with the same degree of 
certainty. The religion of the Great Mother did not 
receive rejuvenating germs from Palestine only, but it 
was greatly changed after the gods of more distant 
Persia came and joined it. In the ancient religion of 
the Achemenides, Mithra, the genius of light, was 
coupled with Anahita, the goddess of the fertilizing 
waters. In Asia Minor the latter was assimilated with 
the fecund Great Mother, worshiped all over the pen- 
insula,3? and when at the end of the first century of 
our era the mysteries of Mithra spread over the Latin 
provinces, its votaries built their sacred crypts in the 
shadow of the temples of the Magna Mater. 

Everywhere in the empire the two religions lived 
in intimate communion. By ingratiating themselves 
with the Phrygian priests, the priests of Mithra ob- 
tained the support of an official institution and shared 
in the protection granted by the state. Moreover, men 
alone could participate in the secret ceremonies of the 
Persian liturgy, at least in the Occident. Other mys- 


66 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


teries, to which women could be admitted, had therefore 
to be added in order to complete them, and so the mys- 
teries of Cybele received the wives and daughters of 
the Mithraists. 

This union had even more important consequences 
for the old religion of Pessinus than the partial in- 
fusion of Judaic beliefs had had. Its theology gained 
a deeper meaning and an elevation hitherto unknown, 
after it had adopted some of the conceptions of Maz- 
daism. 

The introduction of the taurobolium in the ritual of 
the Magna Mater, where it appeared after the middle 
of the first century, was probably connected with this 
transformation. We know the nature of this sacrifice, 
of which Prudentius gives a stirring description based 
on personal recollection of the proceeding. On an 
open platform a steer was killed, and the blood dropped 
down upon the mystic, who was standing in an ex- 
cavation below. “Through the thousand crevices in 
the wood,” says the poet, “the bloody dew runs down 
into the pit. The neophyte receives the falling drops 
on his head, clothes and body. He leans backward to 
have his cheeks, his ears, his lips and his nostrils 
wetted ; he pours the liquid over his eyes, and does not 
even spare his palate, for he moistens his tongue with 
blood and drinks it eagerly.”33 After submitting to 
this repulsive sprinkling he offered himself to the ven- 
eration of the crowd. They believed that he was 
purified of his faults, and had become the equal of the 
deity through his red baptism. 

Although the origin of this sacrifice that took place 
in the mysteries of Cybele at Rome is as yet shrouded 
in obscurity, recent discoveries enable us to trace back 


ASIA MINOR. 67 


very closely the various phases of its development. In 
accordance with a custom prevalent in the entire Orient 
at the beginning of history, the Anatolian lords were 
fond of pursuing and lassoing wild buffalos, which 
they afterwards sacrificed to the gods. Beasts caught 
during a hunt were immolated, and frequently also 
prisoners of war. Gradually the savagery of this prim- 
itive rite was modified until finally nothing but a circus 
play was left. During the Alexandrian period people 
were satisfied with organizing a coryida in the arena, 
in the course of which the victim intended for im- 
molation was seized. This is the proper meaning of 
the terms taurobolium and criobolium,* which had long 
been enigmas,34 and which denoted the act of catching 
a steer or a ram by means of a hurled weapon, prob- 
ably the thong of a lasso. Without doubt even this 
act was finally reduced to a mere sham under the 
Roman empire, but the weapon with which the animal 
was slain always remained a hunting weapon, a sacred 
boar spear.35 

The ideas on which the immolation was based were 
originally just as barbarous as the sacrifice itself. It 
is a matter of general belief among savage peoples that 
one acquires the qualities of an enemy slain in battle 
or of a beast killed in the chase by drinking or washing 
in the blood, or by eating some of the viscera of the 
body. The blood especially has often been considered 
as the seat of vital energy. By moistening his body 
with the blood of the slaughtered steer, the neophyte 
believed that he was transfusing the strength of the 
formidable beast into his own limbs. 

This naive and purely material conception was soon 


* ravpoBédXtoy, KproBdr.or, 


68 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


modified and refined. The Thracians brought into 
Phrygia, and the Persian magi into Cappadocia, the 
fast spreading belief in the immortality of mankind. 
Under their influence, especially under that of Mazda- 
ism, which made the mythical steer the author of crea- 
tion and of resurrection, the old savage practice as- 
sumed a more spiritual and more elevated meaning. 
By complying with it, people no longer thought they 
were acquiring the buffalo’s strength; the blood, as 
the principle of life, was no longer supposed to renew 
physical energy, but to cause a temporary or even an 
eternal rebirth of the soul. The descent into the pit 
was regarded as burial, a melancholy dirge accom- 
panied the burial of the old man who had died. When 
he emerged purified of all his crimes by the sprinkling 
of blood and raised to a new life, he was regarded as 
the equal of a god, and the crowd worshiped him from 
a respectful distance.3® 

The vogue obtained in the Roman empire by the 
practice of this repugnant rite can only be explained 
by the extraordinary power ascribed to it. He who sub- 
mitted to it was im aeternum renatus,37 according to 
the inscriptions. 

We could also outline the transformation of other 
Phrygian ceremonies, of which the spirit and some- 
times the letter slowly changed under the influence of 
more advanced moral ideas. This is true of the sacred 
feasts attended by the initiates. One of the few litur- 
gic formulas antiquity has left us refers to these Phryg- 
ian banquets. One hymn says: “I have eaten from the 
tambourine, I have drunk from the cymbal, I have be- 
come a mystic of Attis.”” The banquet, which is found 
in several Oriental religions, was sometimes simply the 


ASIA MINOR. 69 


external sign indicating that the votaries of the same 
divinity formed one large family. Admitted to the 
sacred table, the neophyte was received as the guest of 
the community and became a brother among brothers. 
The religious bond of the thiasus or sodaliciwm took 
the place of the natural relationship of the family, the 
gens or the clan, just as the foreign religion replaced 
the worship of the domestic hearth. 

Sometimes other effects were expected of the food 
eaten in common. When the flesh of some animal sup- 
posed to be of a divine nature was eaten, the votary 
believed that he became identified with the god and that 
he shared in his substance and qualities. In the be- 
ginning the Phrygian priests probably attributed the 
first of these two meanings to their barbarous com- 
munions.38 Towards the end of the empire, moral 
ideas were particularly connected with the assimilation 
of sacred liquor and meats taken from the tambourine 
and cymbal of Attis. They became the staff of the 
spiritual life and were to sustain the votary in his 
trials; at that period he considered the gods as espe- 
cially “the guardians of his soul and thoughts.”39 

As we see, every modification of the conception of 
the world and of man in the society of the empire had 
its reflection in the doctrine of the mysteries. Even 
the conception of the old deities of Pessinus was con- 
stantly changing. When astrology and the Semitic 
religions caused the establishment of a solar heno- 
theism as the leading religion at Rome, Attis was con- 
sidered as the sun, “the shepherd of the twinkling 
stars.” He was identified with Adonis, Bacchus, Pan, 
Osiris and Mithra; he was made a “polymorphous’’4° 
being in which all celestial powers manifested them- 


70 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


selves in turn; a pantheos who wore the crown of rays 
and the lunar crescent at the same time, and whose 
various emblems expressed an infinite multiplicity of 
functions. 

When neo-Platonism was triumphing, the Phrygian 
fable became the traditional mould into which subtle 
exegetists boldly poured their philosophic speculations 
on the creative and stimulating forces that were the 
principles of all material forms, and on the deliverance 
of the divine soul that was submerged in the corrup- 
tion of this earthly world. In his hazy oration on the 
Mother of the Gods, Julian lost all notion of reality on 
account of his excessive use of allegory and was swept 
away by an extravagant symbolism.4! 

Any religion as susceptible to outside influences as 
this one was bound to yield to the ascendancy of Chris- 
tianity. From the explicit testimony of ecclesiastical 
writers we know that attempts were made to oppose 
the Phrygian mysteries to those of the church. It was 
maintained that the sanguinary purification imparted 
by the taurobolium was more efficacious than baptism. 
The food that was taken during the mystic feasts was 
likened to the bread and wine of the communion; the 
Mother of the Gods was undoubtedly placed above the 
Mother of God, whose son also had risen again. A 
Christian author, writing at Rome about the year 375, 
furnishes some remarkable information on this sub- 
ject. As we have seen, a mournful ceremony was cele- 
brated on March 24th, the dies sanguinis in the course 
of which the galli shed their blood and sometimes 
mutilated themselves in commemoration of the wound 
that had caused Attis’s death, ascribing an expiatory 
and atoning power to the blood thus shed. The pagans 


ASIA MINOR. Al 


claimed that the church had copied their most sacred 
rites by placing her Holy Week at the vernal equinox 
in commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross on which 
the divine Lamb, according to the church, had re- 
deemed the human race. Indignant at these blas- 
phemous pretensions, St. Augustine tells of having 
known a priest of Cybele who kept saying: Et tpse 
Pileatus christianus est—“and even the god with the 
Phrygian cap [i. e., Attis] is a Christian.’’4? 

But all efforts to maintain a barbarian religion 
stricken with moral decadence were in vain. On the 
very spot on which the last taurobolia took place at 
the end of the fourth century, in the Phrygianum, 
stands to-day the basilica of the Vatican. 

*K 7K ok 

There is no Oriental religion whose progressive evo- 
lution we could follow at Rome so closely as the cult 
of Cybele and Attis, none that shows so plainly one of 
the reasons that caused their common decay and dis- 
appearance. They all dated back to a remote period 
of barbarism, and from that savage past they inherited 
a number of myths the odium of which could be masked 
but not eradicated by philosophical symbolism, and 
practices whose fundamental coarseness had survived 
from a period of rude nature worship, and could never 
be completely disguised by means of mystic interpre- 
tations. Never was the lack of harmony greater be- 
tween the moralizing tendencies of theologians and the 
cruel shamelessness of tradition. A god held up as 
the august lord of the universe was the pitiful and ab- 
ject hero of an obscene love affair; the taurobolium, 
performed to satisfy man’s most exalted aspirations 
for spiritual purification and immortality, looked like a 


72 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


shower bath of blood and recalled cannibalistic orgies. 
The men of letters and senators attending those mys- 
teries saw them performed by painted eunuchs, ill re- 
puted for their infamous morals, who went through 
dizzy dances similar to those of the dancing dervishes 
and the Aissaouas. We can imagine the repugnance 
these ceremonies caused in everybody whose judgment 
had not been destroyed by a fanatical devotion. Of 
no other pagan superstition do the Christian polemi- 
cists speak with such profound contempt, and there is 
undoubtedly a reason for their attitude. But they were 
in a more fortunate position than their pagan antag- 
onists ; their doctrine was not burdened with barbarous 
traditions dating back to times of savagery ; and all the 
ignominies that stained the old Phrygian religion must 
not prejudice us against it nor cause us to slight the 
long continued efforts that were made to refine it grad- 
ually and to mould it into a form that would fulfil the 
new demands of morality and enable it to follow the 
laborious march of Roman society on the road of re- 
ligious progress. 


He Pid. 


E know more about the religion of the early 

Egyptians than about any other ancient religion. 
Its development can be traced back three or four thou- 
sand years; we can read its sacred texts, mythical 
narratives, hymns, rituals, and the Book of the Dead 
in the original, and we can ascertain its various ideas 
as to the nature of the divine powers and of future 
life. A great number of monuments have preserved 
for our inspection the pictures of divinities and rep- 
resentations of liturgic scenes, while numerous inscrip- 
tions and papyri enlighten us in regard to the sacer- 
dotal organization of the principal temples. It would 
seem that the enormous quantity of documents of all 
kinds that have been deciphered in the course of nearly 
an entire century should have dispelled every uncer- 
tainty about the creed of ancient Egypt, and should 
have furnished exact information with regard to the 
sources and original character of the worship which 
the Greeks and the Romans borrowed from the subjects 
of the Ptolemies. 

And yet, this is not the case. While of the four 
great Oriental religions which were transplanted into 
the Occident, the religion of Isis and Serapis is the one 
whose relation to the ancient belief of the mother 
country we can establish with greatest accuracy, we 


74 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


know very little of its first form and of its nature be- 
fore the imperial period, when it was held in high 
esteem. 

One fact, however, appears to be certain. The Egyp- 
tian worship that spread over the Greco-Roman world 
came from the Serapeum founded at Alexandria by 
Ptolemy Soter, somewhat in the manner of Judaism 
that emanated from the temple of Jerusalem. But the 
earliest history of that famous sanctuary is surrounded 
by such a thick growth of pious legends, that the most 
sagacious investigators have lost their way in it. Was 
Serapis of native origin, or was he imported from 
Sinope or Seleucia, or even from Babylon? Each of 
these opinions has found supporters very recently. Is . 
his name derived from that of the Egyptian god Osiris- , 
Apis, or from that of the Chaldean deity Sar-Apsi? 
Grammatict certant.! 

Whichever solution we may adopt, one fact remains, 
namely, that Serapis and Osiris were either immediately 
identified or else were identical from the beginning. 
The divinity whose worship was started at Alexandria 
by Ptolemy was the god that ruled the dead and shared 
his immortality with them. He was fundamentally an 
Egyptian god, and the most popular of the deities of 
the Nile. Herodotus says that Isis and Osiris were 
revered by every inhabitant of the country, and their 
traditional holidays involved secret ceremonies whose 
sacred meaning the Greek writer dared not reveal.? 

Recognizing their Osiris in Serapis, the Egyptians . 
readily accepted the new cult. There was a tradition 
that a new dynasty should introduce a new god or give 
a sort of preeminence to the god of its own district. 
From time immemorial politics had changed the gov- 


EGYPT. 75 


ernment of heaven when changing that of earth. Under 
the Ptolemies the Serapis of Alexandria naturally be- 
came one of the principal divinities of the country, 
just as the Ammon of Thebes had been the chief of 
the celestial hierarchy under the Pharaohs of that city, 
or as, under the sovereigns from Sais, the local Neith 
had the primacy. At the time of the Antonines there 
were forty-two Serapeums in Egypt.3 

But the purpose of the Ptolemies was not to add one 
more Egyptian god to the countless number already 
worshiped by their subjects. They wanted this god 
to unite in one common worship the two races inhab- 
iting the kingdom, and thus to further a complete fu- 
sion. The Greeks were obliged to worship him side 
by side with the natives. It was a clever political idea 
to institute a Hellenized Egyptian religion at Alexan- 
dria. A tradition mentioned by Plutarch4 has it that 
Manetho, a priest from Heliopolis, a man of advanced 
ideas, together with Timotheus, a Eumolpid from Eleu- 
sis, thought out the character that would best suit the 
newcomer. The result was that the composite religion 
founded by the Lagides became a combination of the 
old creed of the Pharaohs and the Greek mysteries. 

First of all, the liturgic language was no longer the 
native idiom but Greek. This was a radical change. 
The philosopher Demetrius of Phalerum, who had 
been cured of blindness by Serapis, composed poems 
in honor of the god that were still sung under the 
Czesars several centuries later.5 We can easily imagine 
that the poets, who lived on the bounty of the Ptole- 
mies, vied with each other in their efforts to celebrate 
their benefactors’ god, and the old rituals that were 
translated from the Egyptian were also enriched with 


76 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


edifying bits of original inspiration. A hymn to Isis, 
found on a marble monument in the island of Andros,® 
gives us some idea of these sacred compositions, al- 
though it is of more recent date. 

In the second place, the artists replaced the old hie- 
ratic idols by more attractive images and gave them 
the beauty of the immortals. It is not known who 
created the figure of Isis draped in a linen gown with 
a fringed cloak fastened over the breast, whose sweet 
meditative, graciously maternal face is a combination 
of the ideals imagined for Hera and Aphrodite. But 
we know the sculptor of the first statue of Serapis 
that stood in the great sanctuary of Alexandria until 
the end of paganism. This statue, the prototype of 
all the copies that have been preserved, is a colossal 
work of art made of precious materials by a famous 
Athenian sculptor named Bryaxis, a contemporary of 
Scopas. It was one of the last divine creations of Hel- 
lenic genius. The majestic head, with its somber and 
yet benevolent expression, with its abundance of hair, 
and with a crown in the shape of a bushel, bespoke 
the double character of a god ruling at the same time 
both the fertile earth and the dismal realm of the dead.7 

As we see, the Ptolemies had given their new religion 
a literary and artistic shape that was capable of attract- 
ing the most refined and cultured minds. But the 
adaptation to the Hellenic feeling and thinking was 
not exclusively external. Osiris, the god whose wor- 
ship was thus renewed, was more adapted than any 
other to lend his authority to the formation of a syn- 
cretic faith. At a very early period, in fact before the 
time of Herodotus, Osiris had been identified with 
Dionysus, and Isis with Demeter. M. Foucart has en- » 


EGYPT. RE. 


deavored to prove in an ingenious essay that this as- 
similation was not arbitrary, that Osiris and Isis came 
into Crete and Attica during the prehistoric period, 
and that they were mistaken for Dionysus and Demeter® 
by the people of those regions. Without going back 
to those remote ages, we shall merely say with him 
that the mysteries of Dionysus were connected with 
those of Osiris by far-reaching affinities, not simply by 
superficial and fortuitous resemblances. Each com- 
memorated the history of a god governing both vege- 
tation and the underworld at the same time, who was 

ut to death and torn to pieces by an enemy, and 
whose scattered limbs were collected by a goddess, 
after which he was miraculously revived. The Greeks 
must have been very willing to adopt a worship in 
which they found their own divinities and their own 
myths again with something more poignant and more 
magnificent added. It is a very remarkable fact that 
of all the many deities worshiped by the Egyptian dis- 
tricts those of the immediate neighborhood, or if you 
like, the cycle of Osiris, his wife Isis, their son Harpoc- 
rates and their faithful servant Anubis, were the only 
ones that were adopted by the Hellenic populations. 
All other heavenly or infernal spirits worshiped by the 
Egyptians remained strangers to Greece.9 

In the Greco-Latin literature we notice two oppos- 
ing attitudes toward the Egyptian religion. It was 
regarded as the highest and the lowest of religions at 
the same time, and as a matter of fact there was an 
abyss between the always ardent popular beliefs and the 
enlightened faith of the official priests. The Greeks 
and Romans gazed with admiration upon the splendor 
of the temples and ceremonial, upon the fabulous an- 


78 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


tiquity of the sacred traditions and upon the erudition 
of a clergy possessed of a wisdom that had been re- 
vealed by divinity. In becoming the disciples of that 
clergy, they imagined they were drinking from the 
pure fountain whence their own myths had sprung. 
They were overawed by the pretensions of a clergy 
that prided itself on a past in which it kept on living, 
and they strongly felt the attraction of a marvelous 
country where everything was mysterious, from the 
Nile that had created it to the hieroglyphs engraved 
upon the walls of its gigantic edifices.t° At the same 
time they were shocked by the coarseness of its fetich- 
ism and by the absurdity of its superstitions. Above 
all they felt an unconquerable repulsion at the worship 
of animals and plants, which had always been the most 
striking feature of the vulgar Egyptian religion and 
which, like all other archaic devotions, seems to have 
been practised with renewed fervor after the accession 
of the Saite dynasty. The comic writers and the 
satirists never tired of scoffing at the adorers of the 
cat, the crocodile, the leek and the onion. Juvenal 
says ironically: “O holy people, whose very kitchen- 
gardens produce gods.”!! In a general way, this 
strange people, entirely separated from the remainder 
of the world, were regarded with about the same kind 
of feeling that Europeans entertained toward the Chi- 
nese for a long time. 

A purely Egyptian worship would not have been ac- 
ceptable to the Greco-Latin world. The’ main merit 
of the mixed creation of the political genius of the 
Ptolemies consisted in the rejection or modification 
of everything repugnant or monstrous like the phallo- 
phories of Abydos, and in the retention of none but 


EGYPT, 79 


stirring or attractive elements. It was the most civ- 
ilized of all barbarian religions; it retained enough of 
the exotic element to arouse the curiosity of the Greeks, 
but not enough to offend their delicate sense of pro- 
portion, and its success was remarkable. 

It was adopted wherever the authority or the prestige 
of the Lagides was felt, and wherever the relations of 
Alexandria, the great commercial metropolis, extended. 
The Lagides induced the rulers and the nations with 
whom they’ concluded alliances to accept. it. King 
Nicocreon introduced it into Cyprus after having con- 
sulted the oracle of the Serapeum,'? and Agathocles 
introduced it into Sicily, at the time of his marriage 
with the daughter-in-law of Ptolemy I (298).13 At 
Antioch, Seleucus Callinicus built a sanctuary for the 
statue of Isis sent to him from Memphis by Ptolemy 
Euergetes.'4 In token of his friendship Ptolemy Soter 
introduced his god Serapis into Athens, where the 
latter had a temple at the foot of the Acropolis'5 ever 
after, and Arsinoé, his mother or wife, founded an- 
other at Halicarnassus, about the year 307.1° In this 
manner the political activity of the Egyptian dynasty 
was directed toward having the divinities, whose glory 
was in a certain measure connected with that of their 
house, recognized everywhere. Through Apuleius we 
know that under the empire the priests of Isis men- 
tioned the ruling sovereign first of all in their prayers.'7 
And this was simply an imitation of the grateful de- 
votion which their predecessors had felt toward the 
Ptolemies. 

Protected by the Egyptian squadrons, sailors and 
merchants propagated the worship of Isis, the goddess 
of navigators, simultaneously on the coasts of Syria, 


80 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Asia Minor and Greece, in the islands of the Archi- 
pelago,'® and as far as the Hellespont and Thrace.'9 
At Delos, where the inscriptions enable us to study 
this worship somewhat in detail, it was not merely 
‘practised by strangers, but the very sacerdotal func- 
tions were performed by members of the Athenian 
aristocracy. A number of funereal bas-reliefs, in which 
the deified dead wears the calathos of Serapis on his 
head, prove the popularity of the belief in future life 
propagated by these mysteries. According to the 
Egyptian faith he was identified with the god of the 
dead.?° 

Even after the splendor of the court of Alexandria 
had faded and vanished; even after the wars against 
Mithridates and the growth of piracy had ruined the 
traffic of the A®gean Sea, the Alexandrian worship 
was too deeply rooted in the soil of Greece to perish, | 
although it became endangered in certain seaports 
like Delos: Of all the gods of the Orient, Isis and 
Serapis were the only ones that retained a place among 
the great divinities of the Hellenic world until the end 
of paganism.?? 

Eat 

It was this syncretic religion that came to Rome 
after having enjoyed popularity in the eastern Medi- 
terranean. Sicily and the south of Italy were more than 
half Hellenized, and the Ptolemies had diplomatic re- 
lations with these countries, just as the merchants of 
Alexandria had commercial relations with them. For 
this reason the worship of Isis spread as rapidly in 
those regions as on the coasts of Ionia or in the Cyc- 
lades.2?, It was introduced into Syracuse and Catana 
during the earliest years of the third century by Agath- 


EGYPT. 81 


ocles. The Serapeum of Pozzuoli, at that time the 
busiest seaport of Campania, was mentioned in a city 
ordinance of the year 105 B. C.23 About the same 
time an Iseum was founded at Pompeii, where the 
decorative frescos attest to this day the power of ex- 
pansion possessed by the Alexandrian culture. 

After its adoption by the southern part of the Italian 
peninsula, this religion was bound to penetrate rapidly 
to Rome. Ever since the second century before our 
era, it could not help but find adepts in the chequered 
multitude of slaves and freedmen. Under the An- 
tonines the college of the pastophori recalled that it 
had been founded in the time of Sulla.24 In vain did 
the authorities try to check the invasion of the Alex- 
andrian gods. Five different times, in 59, 58, 53, and 
48 B. C., the senate ordered their altars and statues 
torn down,?5 but these violent measures did not stop 
the diffusion of the new beliefs. The Egyptian mys- 
teries were the first example at Rome of an essentially 
popular religious movement that was triumphant over 
the continued resistance of the public authorities and 
the official clergy. 

Why was this Egyptian worship the only one of all 
Oriental religions to suffer repeated persecutions? 
There were two motives, one religious and one polit- 
ical. 

In the first place, this cult was said to exercise a 
corrupting influence perversive of piety. Its morals 
were loose, and the mystery surrounding it excited the 
worst suspicions. Moreover, it appealed violently to 
the emotions and senses. All these factors offended 
the grave decency that a Roman was wont to main- 


82 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


tain in the presence of the gods. The innovators had 
every defender of the mos matorum for an adversary. 

In the second place, this religion had been founded, 
supported and propagated by the Ptolemies; it came 
from a country that was almost hostile to Italy during 
the last period of the republic ;?* it issued from Alex- 
andria, whose superiority Rome felt and feared. Its 
secret societies, made up chiefly of people of the lower 
classes, might easily become clubs of agitators and 
haunts of spies. All these motives for suspicion and 
hatred were undoubtedly more potent in exciting per- 
secution than the purely theological reasons, and per- 
secution was stopped or renewed according to the 
vicissitudes of general politics. 

As we have stated, the chapels consecrated to Isis 
were demolished in the year 48 B. C. After Cesar’s 
death, the triumvirs decided in 43 B. C. to erect a 
temple in her honor out of the public funds, undoubt- 
edly to gain the favor of the masses. This action would 
have implied official recognition, but the project appears 
never to have been executed. If Antony had _ suc- 
ceeded at Actium, Isis and Serapis would have entered 
Rome in triumph, but they were vanquished with Cle- 
opatra; and when Augustus had become the master 
of the empire, he professed a deep aversion for the 
gods of his former enemies. Moreover, he could not 
have suffered the intrusion of the Egyptian clergy into 
the Roman sacerdotal class, whose guardian, restorer 
and chief he was. In 28 B. C. an ordinance was issued 
forbidding the erecting of altars to the Alexandrian 
divinities inside the sacred enclosure of the pomerium, 
and seven years later Agrippa extended this prohibitive 
regulation to a radius of a thousand paces around the 


EGYPT. 83 


city. Tiberius acted on the same principle and in 19 
A. D. instituted the bloodiest persecution against the 
priests of Isis that they ever suffered, in consequence 
~ of a scandalous affair in which a matron, a noble and 
some priests of Isis were implicated. 

All these police measures, however, were strangely 
ineffectual. The Egyptian worship was excluded from 
Rome and her immediate neighborhood in theory if 
not in fact, but the rest of the world remained open to 
its propaganda.?7 

With the beginning of the empire it slowly invaded 
the center and the north of Italy and spread into the 
provinces. Merchants, sailors, slaves, artisans, Egyp- 
tian men of letters, even the discharged soldiers of the 
three legions cantoned in the valley of the Nile con- 
tributed to its diffusion. It entered Africa by way of 
Carthage, and the Danubian countries through the 
ereat emporium of Aquileia. The new province of 
Gaul was invaded through the valley of the Rhone. 
At that period many Oriental emigrants went to seek 
their fortunes in these new countries. Intimate rela- 
tions existed between the cities of Arles and Alexan- 
dria, and we know that a colony of Egyptian Greeks, 
established at Nimes by Augustus, took the gods of 
their native country thither.28 At the beginning of our 
era there set in that great movement of conversion 
that soon established the worship of Isis and Serapis 
from the outskirts of the Sahara to the vallum of 
Britain, and from the mountains of Asturias to the 
mouths of the Danube. 

The resistance still offered by the central power could 
not last much longer. It was impossible to dam in this 
overflowing stream whose thundering waves struck the 


84 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


shaking walls of the pomerium from every side. The 
prestige of Alexandria seemed invincible. At that pe- 
riod the city was more beautiful, more learned, and 
better policed than Rome. She was the model capital, 
a standard to which the Latins strove to rise. They 
translated the works of the scholars of Alexandria, 
imitated her authors, invited her artists and copied her 
institutions. It is plain that they had also to undergo 
the ascendancy of her religion. As a matter of fact, 
her fervent believers maintained her sanctuaries, despite 
the law, on the very Capitol. Under Cesar, Alexan- 
drian astronomers had reformed the calendar of the 
pontiffs, and Alexandrian priests soon marked the dates 
of Isis holidays upon it. ; 

The decisive step was taken soon after the death 
of Tiberius. Caligula erected the great temple of Isis 
Campensis on the Campus Martius probably in the 
year 38.9 In order to spare the sacerdotal suscepti- 
bilities, he founded it outside of the sacred enclosure 
of the city of Servius. Later Domitian made one of 
Rome’s most splendid monuments of that temple. From 
that time Isis and Serapis enjoyed the favor of every 
imperial dynasty, the Flavians as well as the Antonines 
and the Severi. About the year 215 Caracalla built 
an Isis temple, even more magnificent than that of 
Domitian, on the Quirinal, in the heart of the city, and 
perhaps another one on the Coelian. As the apologist 
Minucius Felix states, the Egyptian gods had become 
entirely Roman.3° 

The -climax of their power seems to have been 
reached at the beginning of the third century; later on 
the popular vogue and official support went to other 
divinities, like the Syrian Baals and the Persian Mith- 


EGYPT. 85 


ras. The progress of Christianity also deprived them 
of their power, which was, however, still considerable 
until the end of the ancient world. The Isis processions 
that marched the streets of Rome were described by 
an eye witness as late as the year 394,3' but in 391 
the patriarch Theophilus had consigned the Serapeum 
of Alexandria to the flames, having himself struck the 
first blow with an ax against the colossal statue of the 
god that had so long been the object of a superstitious 
veneration. Thus the prelate destroyed the “very head 
of idolatry,” as Rufinus put it.3? 

As a matter of fact, idolatry received its death blow. 
The worship of the gods of the Ptolemies died out com- 
pletely between the reigns of Theodosius and Justinian,** 
and in accordance with the sad prophecy of Hermes 
Trismegistus** Egypt, Egypt herself, lost her divinities 
and became a land of the dead. Of her religions nothing 
remained but fables that were no longer believed, and 
the only thing that reminded the barbarians who came 
to inhabit the country of its former piety, were words 
engraved on stone. 

This rapid sketch of the history of Isis and Serapis 
shows that these divinities were worshiped in the Latin 
world for more than five centuries. The task of point- 
ing out the transformations of the cult during that 
long period, and the local differences there may have 
been in the various provinces, is reserved for future 
researches. These will undoubtedly find that the Alex- 
andrian worship did not become Latinized under the 
empire, but that its Oriental character became more and 
more pronounced. When Domitian restored the Iseum 
of the Campus Martius and that of Beneventum, he 


86 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


transferred from the valley of the Nile sphinxes, cyno- 
cephali and obelisks of black or pink granite bearing 
borders of hieroglyphics of Amasis, Nectanebos or even 
Rameses II. On other obelisks that were erected in 
the propyleums even the inscriptions of the emperors © 
were written in hieroglyphics.35 Half a century later 
that true dilettante, Hadrian, caused the luxuries of 
Canopus to be reproduced, along with the vale of 
Tempe, in his immense villa at Tibur, to enable him 
to celebrate his voluptuous feasts under the friendly 
eyes of Serapis. He extolled the merits of the deified 
_ Antinous in inscriptions couched in the ancient lan- | 
guage of the Pharaohs; and set the fashion of statues 
hewn out of black basalt in the Egyptian style.3° The 
amateurs of that period affected to prefer the hieratic 
rigidity of the barbarian idols to the elegant freedom 
of Alexandrian art. Those esthetic manifestations 
probably corresponded to religious prejudices, and the - 
Latin worship always endeavored to imitate the art of 
temples in the Nile valley more closely than did the 
Greek. This evolution was in conformity with all the 
tendencies of the imperial period. | | 
By what secret virtue did the Egyptian religion eX- 
ercise this irresistible influence over the Roman world? 
What new elements did those priests, who made pros- 
elytes in every province, give the Roman world? Did 
the success of their preaching mean progress or retro- 
gression from the standard of the ancient Roman 
faith? These are complex and delicate questions that . 
would require minute analysis and cautious treatment 
with a constant and exact observation of shades. I am 
compelled. to limit myself to a rapid sketch, which, I 


EGV pre: o: 87 


fear, will appear rather dry and arbitrary, like every 
, generalization. | 
The particular doctrines of the mysteries of Isis and 
Serapis in regard to the nature and power of the gods 
were not, or were but incidentally, the reasons for the 
triumph of these mysteries. It has been said that the 
Egyptian theology always remained in a “fluid state,”** 
or better in a state of chaos. It consisted of an amal- 
gamation of disparate legends, of an aggregate of par- 
ticular cults, as Egypt herself was an aggregate of a 
number of districts. This religion never formulated 
a coherent system of generally accepted dogmas.. It 
permitted the coexistence of .conflicting conceptions 
and traditions, and all the subtlety of its clergy never 
accomplished, or rather never began, the task of fusing 
those irreconcilable elements into one harmonious syn- 
thesis.3° For the Egyptians there was no principle of 
contradiction. All the heterogeneous beliefs that ever 
obtained in the various districts during the different 
periods of a very long history, were maintained con- 
currently and formed an inextricable confusion in the 
sacred books. Ane 
- About-the same state of affairs prevailed in the Occi- 
dental worship of the Alexandrian divinities. In the 
Occident, just as in Egypt, there were “prophets” in 
the first rank of the clergy, who learnedly discussed 
religion, but never taught a theological system that 
found universal acceptance. The sacred scribe Chere- 
mon, who became Nero’s tutor, recognized the stoical 
theories in the sacerdotal traditions of his country.39 
When the eclectic Plutarch speaks of the character of 
the Egyptian gods, he finds it agrees surprisingly with 
his own philosophy,4° and when the neo-Platonist Iam- 


88 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


blichus examines them, their character seems to agree 
with his doctrines. 'The hazy ideas of the Oriental 
priests enabled every one to see in them the phantoms 
he was pursuing. ; The individual imagination was given 
ample scope, and the dilettantic men of letters rejoiced 
in molding these malleable doctrines at will. They 
were not outlined sharply enough, nor were they formu- 
lated with sufficient precision to appeal to the multi- 
tude. The gods were everything and nothing; they 
got lost in a sfumato. A disconcerting anarchy and 
confusion prevailed among them. By means of a sci- 
entific mixture of Greek, Egyptian and Semitic . ele- 
ments ‘“‘Hermetism’’4t endeavored to create a theolog- 
ical system that would be acceptable to all minds, but 
it seems never to have imposed itself generally on the 
Alexandrian mysteries which were older than itself, 
and furthermore it could not escape the contradictions 
of Egyptian thought. The religion of Isis did not gain 
a hold on the soul by its dogmatism. 

It must be admitted, however, that, owing to its ex- 
treme flexibility, this religion was easily adapted to 
the various centers to which it was transferred, and that 
it enjoyed the valuable advantage of being always in 
perfect harmony with the prevailing philosophy. More- 
over, the syncretic tendencies of Egypt responded ad- 
_mirably to those that began to obtain at Rome. At a 
very early period henotheistic theories had been favor- 
ably received in sacerdotal circles, and while crediting 
the god of their own temple with supremacy, the priests © 
admitted that he might have a number of different 
personalities, under which he was worshiped simul- 
taneously. In this way the unity of the supreme being 
was affirmed for the thinkers, and polytheism with its 


EGYPT. 89 


intangible traditions maintained for the masses. In 
the same manner Isis and Osiris had absorbed several 
local divinities under the Pharaohs, and had assumed 
a complex character that was capable of indefinite ex- 
tension. The same process continued under the Ptole- 
mies when the religion of Egypt came into contact 
with Greece. Isis was identified simultaneously with 
Demeter, Aphrodite, Hera, Semele, Io, Tyche, and 
others. She was considered the queen of heaven and 
hell, of earth and sea. She was “the past, the present 
and the future,’’4? “nature the mother of things, the 
mistress of the elements, born at the beginning of 
the centuries.”43 She had numberless names, an in- 
finity of different aspects and an inexhaustible treasure 
of virtues. In short, she became a pantheistic power 
that was everything in one, una quae est omnias+ 

The authority of Serapis was no less exalted, and 
his field no less extensive. He also was regarded as a 
universal god of whom men liked to say that he was 
“unique.”’* In him all energies were centered, although 
the functions of Zeus, of Pluto or of Helios were espe- 
cially ascribed to him. For many. centuries Osiris had 
been worshiped at Abydos both as author of fecundity 
and lord of the underworld,45 and this double char- 
acter early caused him to be identified with the sun, 
which fertilizes the earth during its diurnal course and | 
travels through the subterranean realms_at night. Thus 
the conception of this nature divinity, that had already 
prevailed along the Nile, accorded without difficulty 
with the solar pantheism that was the last form of 
Roman paganism. This theological system, which did 
not gain the upper hand in the Occident until the sec- 

* Eis Zeds Ddpames, 


90 ? THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ond century of our era, was not brought in by Egypt. 
It did not have the exclusive predominance there that 
it had held under the empire, and even in Plutarch’s 
time it was only one creed among many.4® The de- 
ciding influence in this matter was exercised by the 
Syrian Baals and the Chaldean astrology. 

The theology of the Egyptian mysteries, then, fol- 
lowed rather than led the general influx of ideas. The 
same may be said of their ethics. It did not force itself 
upon the world by lofty moral precepts, nor by a sub- 
lime ideal of holiness. Many have admired the edi- 
fying list in the Book of the Dead, that rightfully or 
otherwise sets forth the virtues which the deceased 
claims to have practised in order to obtain a favorable 
judgment from Osiris. If one considers the period in 
which it appears, this ethics is undoubtedly very ele- 
vated, but it seems rudimentary and even childish if 
one compares it with the principles formulated by the 
Roman jurists, to say nothing of the minute psycho- 
logical analyses of the Stoic casuists. In this range 
of ideas also, the maintenance of the most striking con- 
trasts characterizes Egyptian mentality, which was _ 
never shocked by the cruelties and obscenities that 
sullied the mythology and the ritual. Like Epicurus 
at Athens, some of the sacred texts actually invited the 
believers to enjoy life before the sadness of death.47 

Isis was not a very austere-goddess at the time she 
entered Italy. Identified with Venus, as Harpocrates 
was with Eros, she was honored especially by the 
women with whom love was a profession. In Alex- 
andria, the city of pleasure, she had lost all severity, _ 
and at Rome this good goddess remained very indul- 
gent to human weaknesses. Juvenal harshly. refers to 


EGYPT. 9] 


her as a procuress,4® and her temples had a more than 
doubtful reputation, for they were frequented by young 
men in quest of gallant adventures. Apuleius himself 
chose a lewd tale in which to display his fervor as an | 
initiate. | 

But we have said that Egypt was full of contradic- 
tions, and when a more exacting morality demanded 
that the gods should make man virtuous, the Alexan- 
drian mysteries offered to satisfy that demand. . 

At all times the Egyptian ritual attributed consider- 
able importance to purity, or, to use a more adequate 
term, to cleanliness. Before every ceremony the off- 
ciating priest had to submit to ablutions, sometimes 
to fumigations or anointing, and to abstain from cer- 
tain foods and from incontinence for a certain time. 
Originally no moral idea was connected with this puri- 
fication. It was considered a means of exorcising 
malevolent demons or of putting the priest into a state 
in which the sacrifice performed by him could have 
the expected effect. It was similar to the diet, shower- 
baths and massage prescribed by physicians for phys- 
ical health. The internal status of the officiating person 
was a matter of as much indifference to the celestial 
spirits as the actual worth of the deceased was to 
Osiris, the judge of the underworld. All that was 
necessary to have him open the fields of Aalu to the 
soul was to pronounce the liturgic formulas, and if 
the soul declared its innocence in the prescribed terms 
its word was readily accepted. 

But in the Egyptian religion, as in all the religions 
of antiquity,49 the original conception was gradually 
transformed and a new idea slowly took its place. 
The sacramental acts of purification were now ex- 


2 BAe THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


pected to wipe out moral stains, and people became 
convinced that they made man better. The devout 
- female votaries of Isis, whom Juvenals° pictures as 
breaking the ice to bathe in the Tiber, and crawling 
around the temple on their bleeding knees, hoped to 
atone for their sins and to make up for their shortcom- 
ings by means of these sufferings. 

When a new ideal grew up in the popular conscience 
during the second century, when the magicians them- 
selves became pious and serious people, free from 
passions and appetites, and were honored because of 
the dignity of their lives more than for their white — 
linen robes,5? then the virtues of which the Egyptian 
priests enjoined the practice also became less external. 
Purity of the heart rather than cleanliness of the | 
body was demanded. Renunciation of sensual pleas- : 
ures was the indispensable condition for ‘the knowl- 
edge of divinity, which was the supreme good.5? No 
longer did Isis favor illicit love. »In the novel by 
Xenophon of Ephesus (about 280 A.D.) she protects 
the heroine’s chastity against all pitfalls and assures 
its triumph. According to the ancient belief man’s 
entire existence was a preparation for the formidable 
judgment held by Serapis after death, but to have him 
decide in favor of the mystic, it was not enough to 
know the rites of the sect; the individual life had to 
be free from crime; and the master of the infernal 
regions assigned everybody a place according to his 
deserts.53 The doctrine of future retribution was be- 
ginning to develop. 

However, in this.regard, as in their conception of 
the divinity, the Egyptian mysteries followed the gen- 
eral progress of ideas more than they directed it. Phi- 


EGYPT. 93 


losophy transformed them, _ but found in them little 
inspiration. 


* 


How could a religion, of which neither the theology. 
nor the ethics was really new, stir up at the same time 
. so much hostility and fervor among the Romans? 
To many minds of to-day theology and ethics con- 
stitute religion, but during the classical period it was 
different, and the priests of Isis and Serapis conquered 
souls mainly by other means. They seduced them by 
the powerful attraction of the ritual and retained them 
by the marvelous promises of their doctrine of immor- 
talitye:* ; 

To the Egyptians ritual had a value far superior to 
. that we ascribe to it to-day. It had an operative 
strength of its own that was independent of the in- 
tentions of the officiating priest. The efficacy of prayer 
depended not on the inner disposition of the believer, 
but on the correctness of the words, gestures and in- 
tonation. Religion was not clearly differentiated from 
magic. If a divinity was invoked according to the 
correct forms, especially if one knew how to pronounce 
its real name, it was compelled to act in conformity 
to the will of its priest. The. sacredk words were an 
incantation that compelled the superior powers to obey 
the officiating person, no matter what purpose he had 
in view. W ith the knowledge of the liturgy men ac- 
quired an immense power over the world of spirits. 
Porphyry was surprised and indignant because the 
Egyptians sometimes dared to threaten the gods in 
their orations.5+ In the consecrations the priest’s sum- 
mons compelled the gods to come and animate their 


04 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


statues, and thus his voice created divinities,55 as orig- 
inally the almighty voice of Thoth had created the 
world.5® 

The ritual that conferred such superhuman power57 
developed in Egypt into a state of perfection, complete- 
ness and splendor unknown in the Occident. It pos- 
sessed a unity, a precision and a permanency that stood 
in striking contrast to the variety of the myths, the 
uncertainty of the dogmas and the arbitrariness of the 
interpretations. The sacred books of the Greco-Roman 
period are a faithful reproduction of the texts that 
were engraved upon the walls of the pyramids at the 
dawn of history, notwithstanding the centuries that 
had passed. Even under the Czsars the ancient cere- 
monies dating back to the first ages of Egypt, were 
scrupulously performed because the smallest word and 
the least gesture had their importance. 

This ritual and the attitude toward it found their way 
for the most part into the Latin temples of Isis and 
Serapis. This fact has long been ignored, but there 
can be no doubt about it. A first proof is that the 
clergy of those temples were organized just like those 
of Egypt during the period of the Ptolemies.5’ There 
was a hierarchy presided over by a high priest, which 
consisted of prophetes skilled in the sacred science, 
stolistes, or ornatrices,59 whose_office it was to dress 
the statues of the gods, pastophori who carried the 
sacred temple plates inthe processions, and~so~on, 
just as in Egypt. As in their native country, the priests 
were distinguished from common mortals by a ton- 
sure, by a linen tunic, and by their habits as well as 
by their garb. They devoted themselves entirely to 
their ministry and had no other profession. This sacer- 


EGYPT. 95 


dotal body always remained Egyptian in character, if 
not in nationality, because the liturgy it had to perform 
remained so. In a similar manner the priests of the 
Baals were Syrians,°° because they were the only ones 
that knew how to honor the gods of Syria. 

In the-first place a daily service had to be held just 
as in the Nile valley. The Egyptian gods enjoyed a 
precarious immortality, for they were liable to destruc- 
tion and dependent on necessities. According to a very 
primitive conception that always remained alive, they 
had to be fed, clothed and refreshed every day or else 
perish. From this fact arose the necessity of a liturgy 
that was practically the same in every district. It was 
practised for thousands of years and opposed its un- 
altering form to the multiplicity of legends and local 
beliefs.®! 

This daily liturgy was translated into Greek, per- 
haps later into Latin also; it was adapted to the new 
requirements by the founders of the Serapeum, and 
faithfully observed in the Roman temples of the Alex- 
andrian gods. The essential ceremony always was the 
opening (apertio)®? of the sanctuary. At dawn the 
statue of the divinity was uncovered and shown to 
the community in the uaos, that had been closed and 
sealed during the night.°3 Then, again as in Egypt, 
the priest lit the sacred fire and offered libations of 
water supposed to be from the deified Nile,®4 while 
he chanted the usual hymns to the sound of flutes. 
Finally, “erect upon the threshold”—I translate liter- 
ally from Porphyry—‘he awakens the god by calling 
to him in the Egyptian language.’®5 As we see, the 
god was revived by the sacrifice and, as under the 
Pharaohs, awoke from his slumber at the calling of 


96 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


his name. As a matter of fact the name was indis- 
solubly connected with the personality; he who could 
pronounce the exact name of an individual or of a 
divinity was obeyed as a master by his slave.°° ‘This 
fact made it necessary to maintain the original form 
of that mysterious word. There was no other motive 
for the introduction of a number of barbarian appel- 
latives into the magical incantations. 

It is also probable that the toilet of the statue was 
made every day, that its body and head were dressed,®7 
as in the Egyptian ritual. We have seen that the 
ornatrices or stolistes were especially entrusted with 
these duties. The idol was covered with sumptuous 
raiment and ornamented with jewels and gems. Ari 
inscription furnishes us with an inventory of the jewels 
worn by an Isis of ancient Cadiz ;6* her ornaments 
were more brilliant than those of a Spanish madonna. 

During the entire forenoon, from the moment’ that 
a noisy acclamation had greeted the rising of the sun, 
the images of the gods were exposed to the silent ado- 
ration of the initiates.°9 Egypt is the country whence 
contemplative devotion penetrated into Europe. Then, 
in the afternoon, a second service was held to close 
the sanctuary.7° 

The daily liturgy must have been very absorbing. 
This innovation in the Roman paganism was full of 
consequences. No longer were sacrifices offered to 
the god on certain occasions only, but twice a day 
elaborate services were held. As with the Egyptians, 
whom Herodotus had termed the most religious of all 
peoples,7? devotion assumed a tendency to fill out the 
whole existence and to dominate private and public 
interests. The constant repetition of the same prayers 


EGYPT. 97 


kept up and renewed faith, and, we might say, people 
lived continually under the eyes of the gods. 

Besides the daily rites of the Abydos liturgy the 
holidays marking the beginning of the different sea- 
sons were celebrated at the same date every year.?? 
It was the same in Italy. The calendars have pre- 
served the names of several of them, and of one, the 
Navigium Isidis, the rhetorician Apuleius73 has left 
us a brilliant description on which, to speak with the 
~-ancients, he emptied all his color tubes. On March 
5th, when navigation reopened after the winter months, 
a gorgeous procession?74 marched to the coast, and a 
ship consecrated to Isis, the protectress of sailors, was 
_launched, A burlesque group of masked persons 
opened the procession, then came the women in white 
gowns strewing flowers, the stolistes waving the gar- 
ments of the goddess and the dadophori with lighted 
torches. After these came the hymnodes, whose songs 
mingled in turn with the sharp sound of the cross- 
flutes and the ringing of the brass timbrels; then the 
throngs of the initiates, and finaily the priests, with 
shaven heads and clad in linen robes of a dazzling 
white, bearing the images of animal-faced gods and 
strange symbols, as for instance a golden urn con- 
taining the sacred water of the Nile. The procession 
stopped in front of altars75 erected along the road, 
and on these altars the sacred objects were uncovered 
for the veneration of the faithful. The strange and 
sumptuous magnificence of these celebrations made a 
«deep impression on the common people who loved 
public entertainments. 

But of. all the celebrations connected with the wor- 
ship of Isis the most stirring and the most suggestive 


98 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


was the commemoration of the “Finding of Osiris” . 
(Inventio, Evpeots). Its antecedents date back to re- 
mote antiquity. Since the time of the twelfth dynasty, 
and probably much earlier, there had been held at 
Abydos and elsewhere a sacred performance similar 
’ to the mysteries of our Middle Ages, in which the 
events of Osiris’s passion and resurrection were re- 
produced. We are in possession of the ritual of those 
performances.7® Issuing from the temple, the god 
fell under Set’s blows; around his body funeral lamen- 
tations were simulated, and he was buried according to 
the rites; then Set was vanquished by Horus, and 
Osiris, restored to life, reentered his temple triumphant 
over death. 

The same myth was represented in almost the same 
manner at Rome at the beginning of each November.77 
While the priests and the believers moaned and la- 
mented, Isis in great distress sought the divine body 
of Osiris, whose limbs had been scattered by Typhon. 
Then, after the corpse had been found, rehabilitated 
and revived, there was a long outburst of joy, an 
exuberant jubilation that rang through the temples 
and the streets so loudly that it annoyed the passers-by. 

This mingled despair and enthusiasm acted as 
strongly upon the feelings of the believers as did the 
spring-holiday ceremony in the Phrygian religion, and 
it acted through the same means. Moreover, there 
was an esoteric meaning attached to it that none but 
the pious elect understood. Besides the public cere- 
monies there was a secret worship to which one was 
admitted only after a gradual initiation. The hero of 
Apuleius had to submit to the ordeal three times in 
order to obtain the whole revelation. In Egypt the 


EGYPT.) 99 


clergy communicated certain rites and interpretations 
only upon a promise not to reveal them. In fact this 
was the case in the worship of Isis at Abydos and 
elsewhere.78 When the Ptolemies regulated the Greek 
ritual of their new religion, it assumed the form of 
the mysteries spread over the Hellenic world and be- 
came very like those of Eleusis. The hand of the 
Eumolpid Timotheus is noticeable in this connection.79 

But while the ceremonial of the initiations and even 
the production of the liturgic drama were thus adapted 
to the religious habits of the Greeks, the doctrinal 
contents of the Alexandrian mysteries remained purely 
Egyptian. The old belief that immortality could be 
secured by means of an identification of the deceased 
with Osiris or Serapis never died out. 

Perhaps in no other people did the epigram of Fustel 
de Coulanges find so complete a verification as in the 
Egyptians: “Death was the first mystery; it started 
man on the road to the other mysteries.’’°° Nowhere 
else was life so completely dominated by preoccupation 
with life after death; nowhere else was such minute 
and complicated care taken to secure and perpetuate 
another existence for the deceased. The funeral litera- 
ture, of which we have found a very great number of 
documents, had acquired a development equaled by 
no other, and the architecture of no other nation can 
exhibit tombs comparable with the pyramids or the 
rock-built sepulchers of Thebes. 

This constant endeavor to secure an after-existence 
for one’s self and relatives manifested itself in various 
ways, but it finally assumed a concrete form in the 
worship of Osiris. The fate of Osiris, the god who 
died and returned to life, became the prototype of the 


100 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


fate of every human being that observed the. funeral 
rites. ‘‘As truly as Osiris lives,’ says an Egyptian 
text, “he also shall live; as truly as Osiris is not dead, 
shall he not die; as truly as Osiris is not annihilated, 
shall he not be annihilated.”® 


If, then, the deceased had piously served Osiris- 
Serapis, he was assimilated to that god, and shared . 


his immortality in the underworld, where the judge 
of the dead held forth. He lived not as a tenuous 
shade or as a subtle spirit, but in full possession of his 
body as well as of his soul. That was the Egyptian 
doctrine, and that certainly was also the doctrine of the 
Greco-Latin mysteries.®? 

Through the initiation the mystic was born again, 
but to a superhuman life, and became the equal of 
the immortals.83 In his ecstasy he imagined that he 
was crossing the threshold of death and contemplating 
the gods of heaven and hell face to face.84 If he had 
accurately followed the prescriptions imposed upon 
him by Isis and Serapis through their priests, those 
gods prolonged his life after his decease beyond the 
duration assigned to it by destiny, and he participated 
eternally in their beatitude and offered them his hom- 
age in their realm.85 The “unspeakable pleasure” he 
felt when contemplating the sacred images in the tem- 
ple®> became perpetual rapture when he was in the 
divine presence instead of in the presence of the im- 
age, and drawn close to divinity his thirsting soul 
enjoyed the delights of that ineffable beauty.®7 

When the Alexandrian mysteries spread over Italy 
under the republic, no religion had ever brought to 
mankind so formal a promise of blest immortality as 
these, and this, more than anything else, lent them an 


_ EGYPT. 101 


irresistible power of attraction. Instead of the vague 
and contradictory opinions of the philosophers in re- 
gard to the destiny of the soul, Serapis offered cer- 
tainty founded on divine revelation corroborated by 
the faith of the countless generations that had adhered 
to it. What the votaries of Orpheus had confusedly 
discovered through the veil of the legends, and taught 
to Magna Grecia,’ namely, that this earthly life was 
a trial, a preparation for a higher and purer life, that 
the happiness of an after-life could be secured by 
means of rites and observances revealed by the gods 
_themselves,/all this was now preached with a firmness 
and precision hitherto unknown./ These eschatolog- 
ical doctrines in particular, helped Egypt to conquer 
the Latin world and especially the miserable masses, 
on whom the weight of all the iniquities of Roman 
society rested heavily. 

The power and popularity of that belief in future 
life has left traces even in the French language, and in 
concluding this study, from which I have been com- 
pelled to exclude every picturesque detail, I would like 
to point out how a French word of to-day dimly _per- 
petuates the memory of the old Egyptian ideas. 

During the cold nights of their long winters the 
Scandinavians dreamed of a Walhalla where the de- 
ceased warriors sat in well-closed brilliantly illuminated 
halls, warming themselves and drinking the strong 
liquor served by the Valkyries; but under the burning 
sky of Egypt, near the arid sand where thirst kills 
the traveler, people wished that their dead might find 
a limpid spring in their future wanderings to assuage 
the heat that devoured them, and that they might be 


102 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


refreshed by the breezes of the north wind.89 Even 
at Rome the adherents of the Alexandrian gods fre- 
quently inscribed the following wish on their tombs: 
“May Osiris give you fresh water.”9° Soon this water 
became, in a figurative sense, the fountain of life pour- 
ing out immortality to thirsting souls. The metaphor 
obtained such popularity that in Latin refrigerium be- 
came synonymous with comfort and happiness. The 
term retained this meaning in the liturgy of the 
church,9! and for that reason people continue to pray 
for spiritual rafraichissement of the dead although the 
Christian paradise has very little resemblance to the 
fields of Aalu. 


SYRIA. 


HE religions of Syria never had the same solidar- 

ity in the Occident as those from Egypt or Asia 
Minor. From the coasts of Phcenicia and the valleys 
of Lebanon, from the borders of the Euphrates and 
the oases of the desert, they came at various periods, 
like the successive waves of the incoming tide, and 
existed side by side in the Roman world without unit- 
ing, in spite of their similarities. The isolation in 
which they remained and the persistent adherence of 
their believers to their particular rites were a con- 
sequence and reflection of the disunited condition of 
Syria herself, where the different tribes and districts 
remained more distinct than anywhere else, even after 
they had been brought together under the domination 
of Rome. They doggedly preserved their local gods 
and Semitic dialects. 

It would be impossible to outline each one of these 
religions in detail at this time and to reconstruct their 
history, because our meager information would not 
permit it, but we can indicate, in a general way, how 
they penetrated into the Occidental countries at vari- 
ous periods, and we can try to define their common 
characteristics by showing what new elements the 
Syrian paganism brought to the Romans. 

The first Semitic divinity to enter Italy was Atar- 


104 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


gatis, frequently mistaken for the Phoenician Astarte, 
who had a famous temple at Bambyce or Hierapolis, 
not far from the Euphrates, and was worshiped with 
her husband, Hadad, in a considerable part of Syria 
besides. The Greeks considered her as the principal 
Syrian goddess,* and in the Latin countries she was 
commonly known as dea Syria, a name corrupted into 
Iasura by popular use. 

We all remember the unedifying descriptions of her 
itinerant priests that Lucian and Apuleius! have left. 
Led by an old eunuch of dubious habits, a crowd of 
painted young men marched along the highways with 
an ass that bore an elaborately adorned image of the 
goddess. Whenever they passed through a village or 
by some rich villa, they went through their sacred 
exercises. To the shrill accompaniment of their Syrian 
flutes they turned round and round, and with their 
heads thrown back fluttered about and gave vent to 
hoarse clamors until vertigo seized them and insensi- 
bility was complete. Then they flagellated themselves 
wildly, struck themselves with swords and shed their 
blood in front of a rustic crowd which pressed closely 
about them, and finally they took up a profitable col- 
lection from the wondering spectators. They received 
jars of milk and wine, cheeses, flour, bronze coins of 
small denominations and even some silver pieces, all 
of which disappeared in the folds of their capacious 
robes. If opportunity presented they knew how to in- 
crease their profits by means of clever thefts or by 
making commonplace predictions for a moderate con- 
sideration. 

This picturesque description, based on a novel by 


* Supa Ged, 


sal 


SYRIA, 105 


Lucius of Patras, is undoubtedly extreme. It 1s diffi- 
cult to believe that the sacerdotal corps of the goddess 
of Hierapolis should have consisted only of charla- 
tans and thieves. But how can the presence in the 
Occident of that begging and low nomadic clergy be 
explained ? 

It is certain that the first worshipers of the Syrian 
goddess in the Latin world were slaves. During the 
wars against Antiochus the Great a number of pris- 
oners were sent to Italy to be sold at public auction, 
as was the custom, and the first appearance in Italy 
of the Chaldaei? has been connected with that event. 
The Chaldaet were Oriental fortune-tellers who as- 
serted that their predictions were based on the Chal- 
dean astrology. They found credulous clients among 
the farm laborers, and Cato gravely exhorts the good 
landlord to oust them from his estate.3 

Beginning with the second century before Christ, 
merchants began to import Syrian slaves. At that 
time Delos was the great trade center in this human 
commodity, and in that island especially Atargatis was 
worshiped by citizens of Athens and Rome.4+ Trade 
spread her worship in the Occident.s We know that 
the great slave revolution that devastated Sicily in 134 
B. C. was started by a slave from Apamea, a votary 
of the Syrian goddess. Simulating divine madness, 
he called his companions to arms, pretending to act in 
accordance with orders from heaven. This detail, 
which we know by chance, shows how considerable a 
proportion of Semites there was in the gangs working 
the fields, and how much authority Atargatis enjoyed 
in the rural centers. Being too poor to build temples 
for their national goddess, those agricultural laborers 


106 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


waited with their devotions until a band of itinerant 
galli passed through the distant hamlet where the lot 
of the auction had sent them. The existence of those 
wandering priests depended, therefore, on the number 
of fellow-countrymen they met in the rural districts, 
who supported them by sacrificing a part of their poor 
savings. 

Towards the end of the republic those diviners 
appear to have enjoyed rather serious consideration 
at Rome. It was a pythoness from Syria that advised 
Marius on the sacrifices he was to perform.’ 

Under the empire the importation of slaves in- 
creased. Depopulated Italy needed more and more 
foreign hands, and Syria furnished a large quota of 
the forced immigration of cultivators. But those 
Syrians, quick and intelligent as they were strong 
and industrious, performed many other functions. 
They filled the countless domestic positions in the 
palaces of the aristocracy and were especially appre- 
ciated as litter-bearers.8 The imperial and municipal 
administrations, as well as the big contractors to whom 
customs and the mines were farmed out, hired or 
bought them in large numbers, and even in the re- 
motest border provinces the Syrus was found serving 
princes, cities or private individuals. The worship 
of the Syrian goddess profited considerably by the 
economic current that continually brought new wor- 
shipers. We find her mentioned in the first century 
of our era in a Roman inscription referring in precise 
terms to the slave market, and we know that Nero 
took a devout fancy to the stranger that did not, how- 
ever, last very long.9 In the popular Trastevere quarter 
she had a temple until the end of paganism.'° 


SYRIA. 107 


During the imperial period, however, the slaves 
were no longer the only missionaries that came from 
Syria, and Atargatis was no longer the only divinity 
from that country to be worshiped in the Occident. 
The propagation of the Semitic worship progressed 
for the most part in a different manner under the 
empire. 

At the beginning of our era the Syrian merchants, 
Syrt negotiatores, undertook a veritable colonization 
of the Latin provinces.1! During the second century 
before Christ the traders of that nation had established 
settlements along the coast of Asia Minor, on the 
Piraeus, and in the Archipelago. At Delos, a small 
island but a large commercial center, they maintained 
several associations that worshiped their national gods, 
in particular Hadad and Atargatis. But the wars that 
shook the Orient at the end of the republic, and above 
all the growth of piracy, ruined maritime commerce 
and stopped emigration. This began again with re- 
newed vigor when the establishment of the empire 
guaranteed the safety of the seas and when the Levan- 
tine traffic attained a development previously unknown. 
We can trace the history of the Syrian establishments 
in the Latin provinces from the first to the seventh 
century, and recently we have begun to appreciate 
their economic, social and religious importance at its 
true value. 

The Syrians’ love of lucre was proverbial. Active, 
compliant and able, frequently little scrupulous, they 
knew how to conclude first small deals, then larger 
ones, everywhere. Using the special talents of their 
race to advantage, they succeeded in establishing them- 
selves on all coasts of the Mediterranean, even in 


108 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Spain.'? At Malaga an inscription mentions a cor- 
poration formed by them. The Italian ports where 
business was especially active, Pozzuoli, Ostia, later 
Naples, attracted them in great numbers. But they 
did not confine themselves to the seashore; they pene- 
trated far into the interior of the countries, wherever 
they hoped to find profitable trade. They followed the 
commercial highways and traveled up the big rivers. 
By way of the Danube they went as far as Pannonia, 
by way of the Rhone they reached Lyons. In Gaul 
they were especially numerous. In this new country 
that had just been opened to commerce fortunes could 
be made rapidly. A rescript discovered on the range 
of the Lebanon is addressed to sailors from Arles, 
who had charge of the transportation of grain, and in 
the department of Ain a bilingual epitaph has been 
found mentioning a merchant of the third century, 
Thaim or Julian, son of Saad, decurion of the city 
of Canatha in Syria, who owned two factories in the 
Rhone basin, where he handled goods from Aqui- 
tania.‘3 Thus the Syrians spread over the entire prov- 
ince as far as Treves, where they had a strong colony. 
Not even the barbarian invasions of the fifth century 
stopped their immigration. Saint Jerome describes 
them traversing the entire Roman world amidst the 
troubles of the invasion, prompted by the lust of gain 
to defy all dangers. In the barbarian society the part 
played by this civilized and city-bred element was even 
more considerable. Under the Merovingians in about 
591 they had sufficient influence at Paris to have one 
of their number elected bishop and to gain possession 
of all ecclesiastical offices. Gregory of Tours tells 
how King Gontrand, on entering the city of Orleans 


SYRIA. 109 


in 585, was received by a crowd praising him “in the 
language of the Latins, the Jews and the Syrians.’’'4 
The merchant colonies existed until the Saracen cor- 
sairs destroyed the commerce of the Mediterranean. 

Those establishments exercised a strong influence 
upon the economic and material life of the Latin prov- 
inces, especially in Gaul. As bankers the Syrians 
concentrated a large share of the money business in 
their hands and monopolized the importing of the val- 
uable Levantine commodities as well as of the articles 
of luxury; they sold wines, spices, glassware, silks 
and purple fabrics, also objects wrought by goldsmiths, 
to be used as patterns by the native artisans. Their 
moral and religious influence was not less considerable: 
for instance, it has been shown that they furthered 
the development of monastic life during the Christian 
period, and that the devotion to the crucifix's that 
grew up in opposition to the monophysites, was intro- 
duced into the Occident by them. During the first 
five centuries Christians felt an unconquerable repug- 
nance to the representation of the Saviour of the 
world nailed to an instrument of punishment more 
infamous than the guillotine of to-day. The Syrians 
were the first to substitute reality in all its pathetic 
horror for a vague symbolism. 

In pagan times the religious ascendency of that 
immigrant population was no less remarkable. The 
merchants always took an interest in the affairs of 
heaven as well as in those of earth. At all times Syria 
was a land of ardent devotion, and in the first century 
its children were as fervid in propagating their bar- 
barian gods in the Occident as after their conversion 
they were enthusiastic in spreading Christianity as far 


110 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


as Turkestan and China. As soon as the merchants 
had established their places of business in the islands 
of the Archipelago during the Alexandrian period, 
and in the Latin period under the empire, they founded 
chapels in which they practised their exotic rites. 

It was easy for the divinities of the Phoenician 
coast to cross the seas. Among them were Adonis, 
whom the women of Byblos mourned; Balmarcodes, 
“the Lord of the dances,’ who came from Beirut; 
Marna, the master of rain, worshiped at Gaza; and 
Maiuma,’® whose nautical holiday was celebrated every 
spring on the coast near Ostia as well as in the 
Orient. 

Besides these half Hellenized religions, others of 
a more purely Semitic nature came from the interior 
of the country, because the merchants frequently were 
natives of the cities of the Hinterland, as for instance 
Apamea or Epiphanea in Coele-Syria, or even of vil- 
lages in that flat country. As Rome incorporated the 
small kingdoms beyond the Lebanon and the Orontes 
that had preserved a precarious independence, the cur- 
rent of emigration increased. In 71 Commagene, 
which lies between the Taurus and the Euphrates, 
was annexed by Vespasian, a little later the dynasties 
of Chalcis and Emesa were also deprived of their 
power. Nero, it appears, took possession of Damas- 
cus; half a century later Trajan established the new 
province of Arabia in the south (106 A. D.), and the 
oasis of Palmyra, a great mercantile center, lost its — 
autonomy at the same time. In this manner Rome 
extended her direct authority as far as the desert, 
over countries that were only superficially Hellenized, 
and where the native devotions had preserved all their 


SYRIA. 111 


savage fervor. From that time constant communi- 
cation was established between Italy and those regions 
which had heretofore been almost inaccessible. As 
roads were built commerce developed, and together 
with the interests of trade the needs of administration 
created an incessant exchange of men, of products 
and of beliefs between those out-of-the-way countries 
and the Latin provinces. 

These annexations, therefore, were followed by a 
renewed influx of Syrian divinities into the Occident. 
At Pozzuoli, the last port of call of the Levantine 
vessels, there was a temple to the Baal of Damascus 
(Jupiter Damascenus) in which leading citizens offi- 
ciated, and there were altars on which two golden 
camels!7 were offered to Dusares, a divinity who had 
come from the interior of Arabia. They kept company 
with a divinity of more ancient repute, the Hadad of 
Baabek - Heliopolis (Jupiter Heliopolitanus), whose 
immense temple, considered one of the world’s won- 
ders,18 had been restored by Antoninus Pius, and may 
still be seen facing Lebanon in majestic elegance. 
_ Heliopolis and Beirut had been the most ancient col- 
onies founded by Augustus in Syria. The god of 
Heliopolis participated in the privileged position 
granted to the inhabitants of those two cities, who 
worshiped in a common devotion,’9 and he was nat- 
uralized as a Roman with greater ease than the others. 

The conquest of all Syria as far as Euphrates and 
the subjection of even a part of Mesopotamia aided 
the diffusion of the Semitic religions in still another 
manner. From these regions, which were partly in- 
habited by fighting races, the Czsars drew recruits 
for the imperial army. They levied a great number of 


112 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


legionaries, but especially auxiliary troops, who were 
transferred to the frontiers. Troopers and foot-soldiers 
from those provinces furnished important contingents 
to the garrisons of Europe and Africa. For instance, 
a cohort of one thousand archers from Emesa was 
established in Pannonia, another of archers from Da- 
mascus in upper Germany; Mauretania received ir- 
regulars from Palmyra, and bodies of troops levied 
in Ituraea, on the outskirts of the Arabian desert, 
were encamped in Dacia, Germany, Egypt and Cappa- 
docia at the same.time. Commagene alone furnished 
no less than six cohorts of five hundred men each 
that were sent to the Danube and into Numidia.?° 

The number of inscriptions consecrated by soldiers 
proves both the ardor of their faith and the diversity 
of their beliefs. Like the sailors of to-day who are 
transferred to strange climes and exposed to incessant 
danger, they were constantly inclined to invoke the 
protection of heaven, and remained attached to the 
gods who seemed to remind them in their exile of the 
distant home country. Therefore it is not surprising 
that the Syrians who served in the army should have 
practised the religion of their Baals in the neighbor- 
hood of their camps. In the north of England, near 
the wall of Hadrian, an inscription in verse in honor 
of the goddess of Hierapolis has been found; its author 
was a prefect, probably of a cohort of Hamites sta- 
tioned at this distant post.?! 

Not all the soldiers, however, went to swell the 
ranks of believers worshiping divinities that had long 
been adopted by the Latin world, as did that officer. 
They also brought along new ones that had come from 
a still greater distance than their predecessors, in fact 


SYRIA. 113 


from the outskirts of the barbarian world, because 
from those regions in particular trained men could 
be obtained. There were, for instance, Baltis, an “Our 
Lady” from Osroene beyond the Euphrates ;?? Aziz, 
the “strong god” of Edessa, who was identified with 
the star Lucifer ;?3 Malakbel, the “Lord’s messenger,” 
patron of the soldiers from Palmyra, who appeared 
with several companions at Rome, in Numidia and in 
Dacia.24 The most celebrated of those gods then was 
the Jupiter of Doliche, a small city of Commagene, 
that owed its fame to him. Because of the troops 
coming from that region, this obscure Baal, whose 
name is mentioned by no author, found worshipers in 
every Roman province as far as Africa, Germany and 
Brittany. The number of known inscriptions conse- 
crated to him exceeds a hundred, and it is still grow- 
ing. Being originally nothing but a god of lightning, 
represented as brandishing’ an ax, this local genius 
of the tempest was elevated to the rank of tutelary 
divinity of the imperial armies.?5 

The diffusion of the Semitic religions in Italy that 
commenced imperceptibly under the republic became 
more marked after the first century of our era. Their 
expansion and multiplication were rapid, and they 
attained the apogee of their power during the third 
century. Their influence became almost predominant 
when the accession of the Severi lent them the support 
of a court that was half Syrian. Functionaries of all 
kinds, senators and officers, vied with each other in 
devotion to the patron gods of their sovereigns, gods 
which the sovereigns patronized in turn. Intelligent 
and ambitious princesses like Julia Domna, Julia 
Maesa, Julia Mammea, whose ascendency was very 


114 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


considerable, became propagators of their national re- 
ligion. We all know the audacious pronunciamento 
of the year 218 that placed upon the throne the four- 
teen-year-old emperor Heliogabalus, a worshiper of the 
Baal of Emesa. His intention was to give supremacy 
over all other gods to his barbarian divinity, who had 
heretofore been almost unknown. The ancient authors 
narrate with indignation how this crowned priest at- 
tempted to elevate his black stone, the coarse idol 
brought from Emesa, to the rank of supreme divinity 
of the empire by subordinating the whole ancient pan- 
theon to it; they never tire of giving revolting details 
about the dissoluteness of the debaucheries for which 
the festivities of the new Sol invictus Elagabal fur- 
nished a pretext.2° However, the question arises 
whether the Roman historians, being very hostile to 
that foreigner who haughtily favored the customs of 
his own country, did not misrepresent or partly mis- 
understand the facts. Heliogabalus’s attempt to have 
his god recognized as supreme, and to establish a kind 
of monotheism in heaven as there was monarchy on 
earth, was undoubtedly too violent, awkward and pre- 
mature, but it was in keeping with the aspirations of 
the time, and it must be remembered that the imperial 
policy could find the support of powerful Syrian col- 
Onies not only at Rome but all over the empire. 

Half a century later Aurelian?7 was inspired by the 
same idea when he created a new worship, that of the 
“Invincible Sun.” Worshiped in a splendid temple, 
by pontiffs equal in rank to those of ancient Rome, 
having magnificent plays held in his honor every fourth 
year, Sol invictus was also elevated to the supreme 
rank in the divine hierarchy, and became the special 


SYRIA. 115 


protector of the emperors and the empire. The country 
where Aurelian found the pattern he sought to repro- 
duce, was again Syria. Into the new sanctuary he 
transferred the images of Bel and Helios, taken from 
Palmyra, after it had fallen before his arms. 

* K XK 

The sovereigns, then, twice attempted to replace the 
Capitoline Jupiter by a Semitic god and to make a 
Semitic religion the principal and official religion of 
the Romans. They proclaimed the fall of the old 
Latin idolatry and the accession of a new paganism 
taken from Syria. What was the superiority attributed 
to the creeds of that country? Why did even an [II- 
lyrian general like Aurelian look for the most perfect 
type of pagan religion in that country? That is the 
problem to be solved, but it must remain unsolved 
unless an exact account is given of the fate of the 
Syrian beliefs under the empire. 

That question has not as yet been very completely 
elucidated. Besides the superficial opuscule of Lucian 
on the dea Syria, we find scarcely any reliable infor- 
mation in the Greek or Latin writers. The work by 
Philo of Byblos is a euhemeristic interpretation of an 
alleged Phoenician cosmogony, and a composition of 
little merit. Neither have we the original texts of the 
Semitic liturgies, as we have for Egypt. Whatever 
we have learned we owe especially to the inscriptions, 
and while these furnish highly valuable indications as 
to the date and area of expansion of these religions, 
they tell us hardly anything about their doctrines. 
Light on this subject may be expected from the ex- 
cavations that are being made in the great sanctuaries 
of Syria, and also from a more exact interpretation 


116 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of the sculptured monuments that we now possess in 
great numbers, especially those of Jupiter Dolichenus. 

Some characteristics of the Semitic paganism, how- 
ever, are known at present, and it must be admitted 
that it would appear at a disadvantage if judged by 
those noticeable features that first attract our atten- 
tion. It had retained a stock of very primitive ideas and 
some aboriginal nature worship that had lasted through 
many centuries and was to persist, in part, under 
Christianity and Islam until the present day.28 Such 
were the worship of high elevations on which a rustic 
enclosure sometimes marked the limits of the conse- 
crated territory; the worship of the waters that flow 
to the sea, the streams that arise in the mountains, the 
springs that gush out of the soil, the ponds, the lakes 
and the wells, into all of which offerings were thrown 
with the idea either of venerating in them the thirst- 
quenching liquid or else the fecund nature of the 
earth; the worship of the trees that shaded the altars 
and that nobody dared to fell or mutilate; the worship 
of stones, especially of the rough stones called bethels 
that were regarded, as their name (beth-El) indicates, 
as the residence of the god, or rather, as the matter 
in which the god was embodied.29 Aphrodite Astarte 
was worshiped in the shape of a conical stone at 
Paphos, and a black aerolite covered with projections 
and depressions to which a symbolic meaning was 
attributed represented Elagabal, and was transferred 
from Emesa to Rome, as we have said. 7 

The animals, as well as inanimate things, received 
their share of homage. Remnants of the old Semitic 
zoolatry perpetuated themselves until the end of pagan- 
ism and even later. Frequently the gods were repre- 


SYRIA. TEA 


sented standing erect on animals. Thus the Dolichean 
Baal stood on a steer, and his spouse on a lion. Around 
certain temples there were sacred parks, in which sav- 
age beasts roamed at liberty,3° a reminder of the time 
when they were considered divine. Two animals espe- 
cially were the objects of universal veneration, the 
pigeon and the fish. Vagrant multitudes of pigeons 
received the traveler landing at Ascalon,3! and they 
played about the enclosures of all the temples of As- 
tarte3? in flocks resembling white whirlwinds. The 
pigeon belonged, properly speaking, to the goddess 
of love, whose symbol it has remained above all to the 
people worshiping that goddess. 
“Quid referam ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes 
Alba Palaestino sancta columba Syro?”33 

The fish was sacred to Atargatis, who undoubtedly 
had been represented in that shape at first, as Dagon 
always was.34 The fish were kept in ponds in the 
proximity of the temples.35 A superstitious fear pre- 
vented people from touching them, because the goddess 
punished the sacrilegious by covering their bodies 
with ulcers and tumors.3® At certain mystic repasts, 
however, the priests and initiates consumed the for- 
bidden food in the belief that they were absorbing the 
flesh of the divinity herself. That worship and its 
practices, which were spread over Syria, probably sug- 
gested the ichthus symbolism in the Christian period.37 

However, over this lower and primordial stratum 
that still cropped out here and there, other less rudi- 
mentary beliefs had formed. Besides inanimate objects 
and animals, the Syrian paganism worshiped personal 
divinities especially. The character of the gods that 
were originally adored by the Semitic tribes has been 


118 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ingeniously reconstructed.38 Each tribe had its Baal 
and Baalat who protected it and whom only its mem- 
bers were permitted to worship. The name of Ba‘al, 
“master,’’ summarizes the conception people had of 
him. In the first place he was regarded as the sov- 
ereign of his votaries, and his position in regard to 
them was that of an Oriental potentate towards his 
subjects ; they were his servants, or rather his slaves.39 
The Baal was at the same time the “master” or pro- 
prietor of the country in which he resided and which 
he made fertile by causing springs to gush from its 
soil. Or his domain was the firmament and he was 
the dominus caeli, whence he made the waters fall to 
the roar of tempests. He was always united with a 
celestial or earthly “queen” and, in the third place, 
he was the “lord” or husband of the “lady” associated 
with him. The one represented the male, the other 
the female principle; they were the authors of all 
fecundity, and as a consequence the worship of the 
divine couple often assumed a sensual and voluptuous 
character. 

As a matter of fact, immorality was nowhere so 
flagrant as in the temples of Astarte, whose female 
servants honored the goddess with untiring ardor. In 
no country was sacred prostitution so developed as in 
Syria, and in the Occident it was to be found prac- 
tically only where the Phcenicians had imported it, as 
on Mount Eryx. Those aberrations, that were kept 
up until the end of paganism,4° probably have their 
explanation in the primitive constitution of the Semitic 
tribe, and the religious custom must have been orig- 
inally one of the forms of exogamy, which compelled 
the woman to unite herself first with a stranger.4 


SYRIA. 119 


As a second blemish, the Semitic religions practised 
human immolations longer than any other religion, 
sacrificing children and grown men in order to please 
sanguinary gods. In spite of Hadrian’s prohibition of 
those murderous offerings,4? they were maintained in 
certain clandestine rites and in the lowest practices of 
magic, up to the fall of the idols, and even later. They 
corresponded to the ideas of a period during which the 
life of a captive or slave had no greater value than 
that of an animal. 

These sacred practices and many others, on which 
Lucian complacently enlarges in his opuscule on the 
goddess of Hierapolis, daily revived the habits of a 
barbarous past in the temples of Syria. Of all the 
conceptions that had successively dominated the coun- 
try, none had completely disappeared. As in Egypt, 
beliefs of very different date and origin coexisted, 
without any attempt to make them agree, or without 
success when the task was undertaken. In these be- 
liefs zoolatry, litholatry and all the other nature wor- 
ships outlived the savagery that had created them. 
More than anywhere else the gods had remained the 
chieftains of clans43 because the tribal organizations 
of Syria were longer lived and more developed than 
those of any other region. Under the empire many 
districts were still subjected to the tribal régime and 
commanded by “ethnarchs” or “phylarchs.’’44 Re- 
ligion, which sacrificed the lives of the men and the 
honor of the women to the divinity, had in many re- 
gards remained on the moral level of unsocial and 
sanguinary tribes. Its obscene and atrocious rites 
called forth exasperated indignation on the part of 


120 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the Roman conscience when Heliogabalus attempted 
to introduce them into Italy with his Baal of Emesa. 
ani b le 

How, then, can one explain the fact that in spite of 
all, the Syrian gods imposed themselves upon the 
Occident and made even the Cesars accept them? The 
reason is that the Semitic paganism can no more be 
judged by certain revolting practices, that perpetuated 
in the heart of civilization the barbarity and puerilities 
of an uncultivated society, than the religion of the 
Nile can be so judged. As in the case of Egypt we 
must distinguish between the sacerdotal religion and 
the infinitely varied popular religion that was em- 
bodied in local customs. Syria possessed a number of 
great sanctuaries in which an educated clergy medi- 
tated and expatiated upon the nature of the divine 
beings and on the meaning of traditions inherited from 
remote ancestors. As their own interests demanded, 
that clergy constantly amended the sacred traditions 
and modified their spirit when the letter was im- 
mutable, in order to make them agree with the new 
aspirations of a more advanced period. They had 
their mysteries and their initiates to whom they re- 
vealed a wisdom that was above the vulgar beliefs of 
the masses.45 

Frequently we can draw diametrically opposite con- 
clusions from the same principle. In that manner the 
old idea of tabu, that seems to have transformed the 
temples of Astarte into houses of debauchery, also 
became the source of a severe code of morals. The 
Semitic tribes were haunted with the fear of the tabu. 
A multitude of things were either impure or sacred 
because, in the original confusion, those two notions 


SYRIA. 121 


had not been clearly differentiated. Man’s ability to 
use the products of nature to satisfy his needs, was 
thus limited by a number of prohibitions, restrictions 
and conditions. He who touched a forbidden object 
was soiled and corrupted, his fellows did not associate 
with him and he could no longer participate in the 
sacrifices. In order to wipe out the blemish, he had 
recourse to ablutions and other ceremonies known to 
the priests. Purity, that had originally been consid-— 
ered simply physical, soon became ritualistic and finally 
spiritual. Life was surrounded by a network of cir- 
cumstances subject to certain conditions, every vio- 
lation of which meant a fall and demanded penance. 
The anxiety to remain constantly in a state of holiness 
or regain that state when it had been lost, filled one’s 
entire existence. It was not peculiar to the Semitic 
tribes, but they ascribed a prime importance to it.4® 
And the gods, who necessarily possessed this quality 
in an eminent degree, were holy beings (dy) 47 par 
excellence. 

In this way principles of conduct and dogmas of 
faith have frequently been derived from instinctive 
and absurd old beliefs. All theological doctrines that 
were accepted in Syria modified the prevailing ancient 
conception of the Baals. But in our present state of 
knowledge it is very difficult indeed to determine the 
shares that the various influences contributed, from 
the conquests of Alexander to the Roman domination, 
to make the Syrian paganism what it became under 
the Czsars. The civilization of the Seleucid empire 
is little known, and we cannot determine what caused 
the alliance of Greek thought with the Semitic tra- 
ditions,48 The religions of the neighboring nations 


122 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


also had an undeniable influence. Phcenicia and Leba- 
non remained moral tributaries of Egypt long after 
they had liberated themselves from the suzerainty of 
the Pharaohs. The theogony of Philo of Byblos took 
gods and myths from that country, and at Heliopolis 
Hadad was honored “according to Egyptian rather 
than Syrian rite.”49 The rigorous monotheism of the 
Jews, who were dispersed over the entire country, 
must also have acted as an active ferment of trans- 
formation.s° But it was Babylon that retained the 
intellectual supremacy, even after its political ruin. The 
powerful sacerdotal caste ruling it did not fall with the 
independence of the country, and it survived the con- 
quests of Alexander as it had previously lived through 
the Persian domination. The researches of Assyriol- 
ogists have shown that its ancient worship persisted 
under the Seleucides, and at the time of Strabo the 
“Chaldeans” still discussed cosmology and first prin- 
ciples in the rival schools of Borsippa and Orchoe.5! 
The ascendancy of that erudite clergy affected all sur- 
rounding regions; it was felt by Persia in the east, 
Cappadocia in the north, but more than anywhere else 
by the Syrians, who were connected with the Oriental 
Semites by bonds of language and blood. Even after 
the Parthians had wrested the valley of the Euphrates 
from the Seleucides, relations with the great temples 
of that region remained uninterrupted. The plains of 
Mesopotamia, inhabited by races of like origin, ex- 
tended on both sides of an artificial border line; great 
commercial roads followed the course of the two rivers 
flowing into the Persian Gulf or cut across the desert, 
and the pilgrims came to Babylon, as Lucian tells us, 
to perform their devotions to the Lady of Bambyce.s? 


SYRIA. 123 


Ever since the Captivity, constant spiritual relations 
had existed between Judaism and the great religious 
metropolis. At the birth of Christianity they mani- 
fested themselves in the rise of gnostic sects in which 
the Semitic mythology formed strange combinations 
with Jewish and Greek ideas and furnished the foun- 
dation for extravagant superstructures.53 Finally, dur- 
ing the decline of the empire, it was Babylon again 
from which emanated Manicheism, the last form of 
idolatry received in the Latin world. We can imagine 
how powerful the religious influence of that country 
on the Syrian paganism must have been. 

That influence manifested itself in various ways. 
First, it introduced new gods. In this way Bel passed 
from the Babylonian pantheon into that of Palmyra 
and was honored throughout northern Syria.54 It also 
caused ancient divinities to be arranged in new groups. 
To the primitive couple of the Baal and the Baalat a 
third"member was added in order to form one of those 
triads dears to Chaldean theology. This took place at 
Hierapolis as well as at Heliopolis, and the three gods 
of the latter city, Hadad, Atargatis and Simios, became 
Jupiter, Venus and Mercury in Latin inscriptions.55 
Finally, and most important, astrolatry wrought rad- 
ical changes in the characters of the celestial powers, 
and, as a further consequence, in the entire Roman 
paganism. In the first place it gave them a second 
personality in addition to their own nature. The side- 
real myths superimposed themselves upon the agrarian 
myths, and gradually obliterated them. Astrology, 
born on the banks of the Euphrates, imposed itself in 
Egypt upon the haughty and unapproachable clergy 
of the most conservative of all nations.5° Syria re- 


124 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ceived it without reserve and surrendered uncondi- 
tionally ;57 numismatics and archeology as well as 
literature prove this. King Antiochus of Commagene, 
for instance, who died 34 B. C., built himself a monu- 
mental tomb on a spur of the Taurus, in which he 
placed his horoscope, designed on a large bas-relief, 
beside the images of his ancestral divinities.5® 

The importance which the introduction of the Syr- 
ian religions into the Occident has for us consists 
therefore in the fact that indirectly they brought cer- 
tain theological doctrines of the Chaldeans with them, 
just as Isis and Serapis carried beliefs of old Egypt 
from Alexandria to the Occident. The Roman empire 
received successively the religious tribute of the two 
great nations that had formerly ruled the Oriental 
world. It is characteristic that the god Bel whom 
Aurelian brought from Asia to set up as the protector 
of his states, was in reality a Babylonian who had 
emigrated to Palmyra,59 a cosmopolitan center ap- 
parently predestined by virtue of its location to be- 
come the intermediary between the civilizations of the 
Euphrates and the Mediterranean. 

The influence exercised by the speculations of the 
Chaldeans upon Greco-Roman thought can be asserted 
positively, but cannot as yet be strictly defined. It 
was at once philosophic and religious, literary and 
popular. The entire neo-Platonist school used the 
names of those venerable masters, but it cannot be 
determined how much it really owes to them. A 
selection of poems that has often been quoted since 
the third century, under the title of ‘““Chaldaic Oracles’’* 
combines the ancient Hellenic theories with a fantastic 


* Adyia Kaddaika, 


SYRIA. 125 


mysticism that was certainly imported from the Orient. 
It is to Babylonia what the literature of Hermes Tris- 
megistus is to Egypt, and it is equally difficult to deter- 
mine the nature of the ingredients that the author put 
into his sacred compositions. But at an earlier date 
the Syrian religions had spread far and wide in the 
Occident ideas conceived on the distant banks of the 
Euphrates. I shall try to indicate briefly what their 
share in the pagan syncretism was. 

We have seen that the gods from Alexandria gained 
souls especially by the promise of blessed immortality. 
Those from Syria must also have satisfied doubts tor- 
menting all the minds of that time. As a matter of 
fact the old Semitic ideas on man’s fate in after-life 
were little comforting. We know how sad, dull and 
hopeless their conception of life after death was. The 
dead descended into a subterranean realm where they 
led a miserable existence, a weak reflection of the 
one they had lost; since they were subject to wants 
and suffering, they had to be supported by funeral 
offerings placed on their sepulchers by their descen- 
dants. Those ancient beliefs and customs were found 
also in primitive Greece and Italy. 

This rudimentary eschatology, however, gave way 
to quite a different conception, one that was closely 
related to the Chaldean astrology, and which spread 
over the Occident towards the end of the republic. 
According to this doctrine the soul returned to heaven 
after death, to live there among the divine stars. While 
it remained on earth it was subject to all the bitter 
necessities of a destiny determined by the revolutions 
of the stars; but when it ascended into the upper re- 
gions, it escaped that fate and even the limits of time; 


126 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


it shared equally in the immortality of the sidereal 
gods that surrounded it.6% In the opinion of some, 
the soul was attracted by the rays of the sun, and 
after passing through the moon, where it was purified, 
it lost itself in the shining star of day.®t Another 
more purely astrological theory, that was undoubtedly. 
a development of the former, taught that the soul 
descended to earth from the heights of heaven by 
passing through the spheres of the seven planets. Dur- 
ing its passage it acquired the dispositions and quali- 
ties proper to each planet. After death it returned to 
its original abode by the same route. To get from 
one sphere to another, it had to pass a door guarded 
by a commandant*.®? Only the souls of initiates knew 
the password that made those incorruptible guardians 
yield, and under the conduct of a psychopompus®3 they 
ascended safely from zone to zone. As the soul rose 
it divested itself of the passions and qualities it had 
acquired on its descent to the earth as though they were 
garments, and, free from sensuality, it penetrated 
into the eighth heaven to enjoy everlasting happiness 
as a subtle essence. 

Perhaps this doctrine, undoubtedly of Babylonian 
origin, was not generally accepted by the Syrian re- 
ligions, as it was by the mysteries of Mithra, but 
these religions, impregnated with astrology, certainly 
propagated the belief that the souls of those worshipers 
that had led pious lives were elevated to the heights 
of heaven, where an apotheosis made them the equals 
of the luminous gods.®4 Under the empire this doc- 
trine slowly supplanted all others; the Elysian fields, 
which the votaries of Isis and Serapis still located in 

* dpxwy, 


SYRIA. 127 


the depths of the earth, were transferred into the ether 
bathing the fixed stars,°5 and the underworld was 
thereafter reserved for the wicked who had not been 
allowed to pass through the celestial gates. 

The sublime regions occupied by the purified souls 
were also the abode of the supreme god.®© When it 
transformed the ideas on the destiny of man, astrology 
also modified those relating to the nature of the divin- 
ity. In this matter the Syrian religions were especially 
original ; for even if the Alexandrian mysteries offered 
man just as comforting prospects of immortality as 
the eschatology of their rivals, they were backward in 
building up a commensurate theology. To the Semitic 
races belongs the honor of having reformed the ancient 
fetichism most thoroughly. Their base and narrow 
conceptions of early times to which we can trace their 
existence, broaden and rise until they form a kind of 
monotheism. 

As we have seen, the Syrian tribes worshiped a god 
of lightning,®7 like all primitive races. That god 
opened the reservoirs of the firmament to let the rain 
fall and split the giant trees of the woods with the 
double ax that always remained his emblem.®® When 
the progress of astronomy removed the constellations 
to incommensurable distances, the ‘Baal of the Heav- 
ens’ (Ba‘al samin) had to grow in majesty. Un- 
doubtedly at the time of the Achemenides, he was 
connected with the Ahura-Mazda of the Persians, the 
ancient god of the vault of heaven, who had become 
the highest physical and moral power, and this con- 
nection helped to transform the old genius of thunder.®9 
People continued to worship the material heaven in 
him; under the Romans he was still simply called 


128 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Caelus, as well as “Celestial Jupiter” (Jupiter Cae- 
lestis, Zebs Oipdvos),7° but it was a heaven studied 
by a sacred science that venerated its harmonious 
mechanism. The Seleucides represented him on their 
coins with a crescent over his forehead and carrying 
a sun with seven rays, to symbolize the fact that he 
presided over the course of the stars ;71 or else he was 
shown with the two Dioscuri at his side, heroes who 
enjoyed life and suffered death in turn, according to 
the Greek myth, and who had become the symbols 
of the two celestial hemispheres. Religious uranog- 
raphy placed the residence of the supreme divinity 
in the most elevated region of the world, fixing its 
abode in the zone most distant from the earth, above 
the planets and the fixed stars. This fact was intended 
to be expressed by the term Most-High* applied to 
the Syrian Baals as well as to Jehovah.72, According 
to this cosmic religion, the Most High resided in the 
immense orb that contained the spheres of all the stars 
and embraced the entire universe which was subject 
to his domination. The Latins translated the name of 
this “Hypsistos” by Jupiter summus exsuperantissi- 
mus?73 to indicate his preeminence over all divine beings. 

As a matter of fact, his power was infinite. The 
primary postulate of the Chaldean astrology was that 
all phenomena and events of this world were neces- 
sarily determined by sidereal influence. The changes 
of nature, as well as the dispositions of men, were 
controlled according to fate, by the divine energies 
that resided in the heavens. In other words, the gods 
were almighty; they were the masters of destiny that 
governed the universe absolutely. The notion of their 


*"'TYioros, 


SYRIA. 129 


omnipotence resulted from the development of the 
ancient autocracy with which the Baals were credited. 
As we have stated, they were conceived after the 
image of an Asiatic monarch, and the religious ter- 
minology was evidently intended to display the humil- 
ity of their priests toward them. In Syria we find 
nothing analogous to what existed in Egypt, where 
the priest thought he could compel the gods to act, 
and even dared to threaten them.74 The distance sepa- 
rating the human and the divine always was much 
greater with the Semitic tribes, and all that astrology 
did was to emphasize the distance more strongly by 
giving it a doctrinal foundation and a scientific appear- 
ance. In the Latin world the Asiatic religions propa- 
gated the conception of the absolute and illimitable 
sovereignty of God over the earth. Apuleius calls 
the Syrian goddess omnipotens et omniparens, “mis- 
tress and mother of all things.’’75 

The observation of the starry skies, moreover, had 
led the Chaldeans to the notion of a divine eternity. 
The constancy of the sidereal revolutions inspired the 
conclusion as to their perpetuity. The stars follow 
their ever uncompleted courses unceasingly; as soon 
as the end of their journey is reached, they resume 
without stopping the road already covered, and the 
cycles of years in which their movements take place 
extend from the indefinite past into the indefinite fu- 
ture.7© Thus a clergy of astronomers necessarily con- 
ceived Baal, “Lord of the heavens,” as the “Master 
of eternity” or “He whose name is praised through all 
eternity’77—titles which constantly recur in Semitic 
inscriptions. The divine stars did not die, like Osiris 
or Attis; whenever they seemed to weaken, they were 


130 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


born to a new life and always remained invincible 
(invictt). 

Together with the mysteries of the Syrian Baals, 
this theological notion penetrated into Occidental pag- 
anism.78 Whenever an inscription to a deus aeternus 
is found in the Latin provinces it refers to a Syrian 
sidereal god, and it is a remarkable fact that this 
epithet did not enter the ritual before the second cen- 
tury, at the time the worship of the god Heaven 
(Caelus)79 was propagated. That the philosophers 
had long before placed the first cause beyond the 
limits of time was of no consequence, for their theories 
had not penetrated into the popular consciousness nor’ 
modified the traditional formulary of the liturgies. To 
the people the divinities were beings more beautiful, 
more vigorous, and more powerful than man, but born 
like him, and exempt only from old age and death, the 
immortals of old Homer. The Syrian priests diffused 
the idea of a god without beginning and without end 
through the Roman world, and thus contributed, along 
lines parallel with the Jewish proselytism, to lend the 
authority of dogma to what had previously been only 
a metaphysical theory. 

The Baals were universal as well as eternal, and 
their power became limitless in regard to space as it 
had been in regard to time. These two principles were 
correlative. The title of “mar‘olam” which the Baals 
bore occasionally may be translated by “Lord of the 
universe,” or by “Lord of eternity,” and efforts cer- 
tainly have been made to claim the twofold quality 
for them.8° Peopled with divine constellations and 
traversed by planets assimilated to the inhabitants of 
Olympus, the heavens determined the destinies of the 


SYRIA. 131 


entire human race by their movements, and the whole 
earth was subject to the changes produced by their 
revolutions.8! Consequently the old Ba‘al Samin was 
necessarily transformed into a universal power. Of 
course, even under the Cesars there existed in Syria 
traces of a period when the local god was the fetich 
of a clan and could be worshiped by the members of 
that clan only, a period when strangers were admitted 
to his altars only after a ceremony of initiation, as 
brothers, or at least as guests and clients. But from 
the period when our knowledge of the history of the 
great divinities of Heliopolis or Hierapolis begins, 
these divinities were regarded as common to all Syr- 
ians, and crowds of pilgrims came from distant coun- 
tries to obtain grace in the holy cities. As protectors 
of the entire human race the Baals gained proselytes 
in the Occident, and their temples witnessed gatherings 
of devotees of every race and nationality. In this 
respect the Baals were distinctly different from Je- 
hovah. 

The essence of paganism implies that the nature of 
a divinity broadens as the number of its votaries in- 
creases. Everybody credits it with some new quality, 
and its character becomes more complex. As it gains 
in power it also has a tendency to dominate its com- 
panion gods and to concentrate their functions in itself. 
To escape this threatening absorption, these gods must 
be of a very sharply defined personality and of a very 
original character. The vague Semitic deities, how- 
ever, were devoid of a well-defined individuality. We 
fail to find among them a well organized society of 
immortals, like that of the Greek Olympus where each 
divinity had its own features and its own particular 


132 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


life full of adventures and experiences, and each fol- 
lowed its special calling to the exclusion of all the 
others. One was a physician, another a poet, a third 
a shepherd, hunter or blacksmith. The Greek inscrip- 
tions found in Syria are, in this regard, eloquently 
concise.83 Usually they have the name of Zeus ac- 
companied by some simple epithet: Rkurios* (Lord), 
aniketos} (invincible), megistost (greatest). All these 
Baals seem to have been brothers. They were per- 
sonalities of indeterminate outline and interchangeable 
powers and were readily confused. 

At the time the Romans came into contact with 
Syria, it had already passed through a period of syn- 
cretism similar to the one we can study with greater 
precision in the Latin world. The ancient exclusive- 
ness and the national particularism had been overcome. 
The Baals of the great sanctuaries had enriched them- 
selves with the virtues®4 of their neighbors; then, al- 
ways following the same process, they had taken cer- 
tain features from foreign divinities brought over by 
the Greek conquerors. In that manner their characters 
had become indefinable, they performed incompatible 
functions and possessed irreconcilable attributes. An 
inscription found in Britain®5 assimilates the Syrian 
goddess to Peace, Virtue, Ceres, Cybele, and even to 
the sign of the Virgin. 

In conformity with the law governing the develop- 
ment of paganism, the Semitic gods tended to become 
pantheistic because they comprehended all nature and 
were identified with it. The various deities were noth- 
ing but different aspects under which the supreme and 
infinite being manifested itself. Although Syria re- 


* Kdpios, + avixnros, t uéyioros, 


SYRIA. 133 


mained deeply and even coarsely idolatrous in prac- 
tice, in theory it approached monotheism or, better 
perhaps, henotheism. By an absurd but curious ety- 
mology the name Hadad has been explained as “one, 
one” (‘ad ‘ad).8° 

Everywhere the narrow and divided polytheism 
showed a confused tendency to elevate itself into a 
superior synthesis, but in Syria astrology lent the 
firmness of intelligent conviction to notions that were 
vague elsewhere. The Chaldean cosmology, which 
deified all elements but ascribed a predominant in- 
fluence to the stars, ruled the entire Syrian syncretism. 
It considered the world as a great organism which 
was kept intact by an intimate solidarity, and whose 
parts continually influenced each other. 

The ancient Semites believed therefore that the 
divinity could be regarded as embodied in the waters, 
in the fire of the lightning, in stones or plants. But 
the most powerful gods were the constellations and 
the planets that governed the course of time and of 
all things. 

The sun was supreme because it led the starry 
choir, because it was the king and guide of all the 
other luminaries and therefore the master of the whole 
world.87. The astronomical doctrines of the “Chal- 
deans” taught that this incandescent globe alternately 
attracted and repelled the other sidereal bodies, and 
from this principle the Oriental theologians had con- 
cluded that it must determine the entire life of the 
universe, inasmuch as it regulated the movements of 
the heavens. As the “intelligent light’? it was espe- 
cially the creator of human reason, and just as it re- 
pelled and attracted the planets in turn, it was believed 


134 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


to send out souls, at the time of birth, into the bodies 
they animated, and to cause them to return to its bosom 
after death by means of a series of emissions and ab- 
sorptions. . 

Later on, when the seat of the Most-High was placed 
beyond the limits of the universe, the radiant star that 
gives us light became the visible image of the supreme 
power, the source of all life and all intelligence, the 
intermediary between an inaccessible god and man- 
kind, and the one object of special homage from the 
multitude.%8 

Solar pantheism, which grew up among the Syrians 
of the Hellenistic period as a result of the influence 
of Chaldean astrolatry, imposed itself upon the whole 
Roman world under the empire. Our very rapid sketch 
of the constitution of that theological system shows 
incidentally the last form assumed by the pagan idea 
of God. In this matter Syria was Rome’s teacher and 
predecessor. The last formula reached by the religion 
of the pagan Semites and in consequence by that of the 
Romans, was a divinity unique, almighty, eternal, uni- 
versal and ineffable, that revealed itself throughout 
nature, but whose most splendid and most energetic 
manifestation was the sun. To arrive at the Christian 
monotheism89 only one final tie had to be broken, 
that is to say, this supreme being residing in a distant 
heaven had to be removed beyond the world. So we 
see once more in this instance, how the propagation 
of the Oriental cults levelled the roads for Christian- 
ity and heralded its triumph. Although astrology 
was always fought by the church, it had nevertheless 
prepared the minds for the dogmas the church was to 
proclaim. 


PERSIA. 


HE dominant historical fact in western Asia in 

ancient times was the opposition between the 
Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations, which was it- 
self only an episode in the great struggle that was 
constantly in progress between the Orient and the 
Occident in those countries. In the first enthusiasm 
of their conquests, the Persians extended their do- 
minion as far as the cities of Ionia and the islands 
of the A*gean Sea, but their power of expansion was 
broken at the foot of the Acropolis. One hundred and 
fifty years later, Alexander destroyed the empire of 
the Achemenides and carried Hellenic culture to the 
banks of the Indus. After two and a half centuries 
the Parthians under the Arsacid dynasty advanced to 
the borders of Syria, and Mithradates Eupator, an 
alleged descendant of Darius, penetrated to the heart 
of Greece at the head of his Persian nobility from 
Pontus. 

After the flood came the ebb. The reconstructed Ro- 
man empire of Augustus soon reduced Armenia, Cap- 
padocia and even the kingdom of the Parthians to a 
kind of vassalage. But after the middle of the third 
century the Sassanid dynasty restored the power of 
Persia and revived its ancient pretensions. From 
that time until the triumph of Islam it was one long 


136 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


duel between the two rival states, in which now one 
was victorious and now the other, while neither was 
ever decisively beaten. An ambassador of king Narses 
to Galerius called these two states “the two eyes of the 
human race.”! 

The “invincible” star of the Persians might wane 
and vanish, but only to reappear in greater glory. The 
political and military strength displayed by this nation 
through the centuries was the result of its high intel- 
lectual and moral qualities. Its original culture was 
always hostile to such an assimilation as that expe- 
rienced in different degrees by the Aryans of Phrygia, 
the Semites of Syria and the Hanites of Egypt. Hel- 
lenism and Iranism—if I may use that term— were 
two equally noble adversaries but differently educated, 
and they always remained separated by instinctive 
racial hostility as much as by hereditary opposition 
of interests. 

Nevertheless, when two civilizations are in contact 
for more than a thousand years, numerous exchanges 
are bound to occur. The influence exercised by Hel- 
lenism as far as the uplands of Central Asia has fre- 
quently been pointed out,? but the prestige retained by 
Persia throughout the ages and the extent of area 
influenced by its energy has not perhaps been shown 
with as much accuracy. For even if Mazdaism was 
the highest expression of Persian genius and its in- 
fluence in consequence mainly religious, yet it was 
not exclusively so. 

After the fall of the Achemenides the memory of 
their empire long haunted Alexander’s successors. Not 
only did the dynasties which claimed to be descended 
from Darius, and which ruled over Pontus, Cappa- 


PERSIA, 7 e437 


docia and Commagene, cultivate political traditions 
that brought them nearer to their supposed ancestors, 
but those traditions were partly adopted even by the 
Seleucides and the Ptolemies, the legitimate heirs of 
the ancient masters of Asia. People were fond of re- 
calling the ideals of past grandeur and sought to 
realize them in the present. In that manner several 
institutions were transmitted to the Roman emperors 
through the agency of the Asiatic monarchies. The 
institution of the amici Augusti, for instance, the ap- 
pointed friends and intimate counselors of the rulers, 
adopted in Italy the forms in use at the court of 
the Diadochi, who had themselves imitated the an- 
cient organization of the palace of the Great Kings.3 

The custom of carrying the sacred fire before the 
Czesars as an emblem of the perpetuity of their power, 
dated back to Darius and with other Persian traditions 
passed on to the dynasties that divided the empire of 
Alexander. There is a striking similarity not only 
between the observance of the Czsars and the practice 
of the Oriental monarchs, but also between the beliefs 
that they held. The continuity of the political and 
religious tradition cannot be doubted.4 As the court 
ceremonial and the internal history of the Hellenistic 
kingdoms become better known we shall be able to 
outline with greater precision the manner in which the 
divided and diminished heritage of the Achemenides, 
after generations of rulers, was finally left to those 
Occidental sovereigns who called themselves the sacro- 
sanct lords of the world as Artaxerxes had done.5 
It may not be generally known that the habit of wel- 
coming friends with a kiss was a ceremony in the 


138 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Oriental formulary before it became a familiar custom 
in Europe.® } 

It is very difficult to trace the hidden paths by which 
pure ideas travel from one people to another. But 
certain it is that at the beginning of our era certain 
Mazdean conceptions had already spread outside of 
Asia. The extent of the influence of Parseeism upon 
the beliefs of Israel under the Achemenides cannot 
be determined, but its existence is undeniable.?7 Some 
of its doctrines, as for instance those relating to angels 
and demons, the end of the world and the final resur- 
rection, were propagated everywhere in the basin of 
the Mediterranean as a consequence of the diffusion 
of Jewish coionies. 

On the other hand, ever since the conquests of Cyrus 
and Darius, the active attention of the Greeks had 
been drawn toward the doctrines and religious prac- 
tices of the new masters of the Orient.2 A number 
of legends representing Pythagoras, Democritus and 
other philosophers as disciples of the magi prove the 
prestige of that powerful sacerdotal class. The Mace- 
donian conquest, which placed the Greeks in direct 
relations with numerous votaries of Mazdaism, gave 
a new impetus to works treating that religion, and the 
great scientific movement inaugurated by Aristotle 
caused many scholars to look into the doctrines taught 
by the Persian subjects of the Seleucides. We know 
from a reliable source that the works catalogued under 
the name of Zoroaster in the library of Alexandria 
contained two million lines. This immense body of 
sacred literature was bound to attract the attention of 
scholars and to call forth the reflections of philos- 
ophers. The dim and dubious science that reached 


PERSIA. 139 


even the lower classes under the name of “magic” 
was to a considerable extent of Persian origin, as its 
name indicates, and along with physician’s recipes 
and thaumaturgic processes it imparted some theo- 
logical doctrines in a confused fashion.9 

This explains why certain institutions and beliefs 
of the Persians had found imitators and adepts in the 
Greco-Oriental world long before the Romans had 
gained a foothold in Asia. Their influence was in- 
direct, secret, frequently indiscernible, but it was cer- 
tain. The most active agencies in the diffusion of 
Mazdaism as of Judaism seem to have been colonies 
of believers who had emigrated far from the mother 
country. There was a Persian dispersion similar to 
that of the Israelites. Communities of magi were 
established not only in eastern Asia Minor, but in 
Galatia, Phrygia, Lydia and even in Egypt. Every- 
where they remained attached to their customs and 
beliefs with persistent tenacity. 

When Rome extended her conquests into Asia Minor 
and Mesopotamia, the influence of Persia became much 
more direct. Superficial contact with the Mazdean 
populations began with the wars against Mithradates, 
but it did not. become frequent and lasting until the 
first century of our era. During that century the 
empire gradually extended its limits to the upper Eu- 
phrates, and thereby absorbed all the uplands of Ana- 
tolia and Commagene south of the Taurus. The native 
dynasties which had fostered the secular isolation of 
those distant countries in spite of the state of vassalage 
to which they had been reduced disappeared one after 
another. The Flavians constructed through those hith- 
erto almost inaccessible regions an immense network 


140 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of roads that were as important to Rome as the rail- 
ways of Turkestan or of Siberia are to modern Russia. 
At the same time Roman legions camped on the banks 
of the Euphrates and in the mountains of Armenia. 
Thus all the little Mazdean centers scattered in Cap- 
padocia and Pontus were forced into constant relation 
with the Latin world, and on the other hand the dis- 
appearance of the buffer states made the Roman and 
Parthian empires neighboring powers in Trajan’s time 
(98-117 A. D.). 

From these conquests and annexations in Asia Minor 
and Syria dates the sudden propagation of the Persian 
mysteries of Mithra in the Occident. For even though 
a congregation of their votaries seems to have existed 
at Rome under Pompey as early as 67 B. C., the real 
diffusion of the mysteries began with the Flavians, 
toward the end of the first century of our era. They 
became more and more prominent under the An- 
tonines and the Severi, and remained the most im- 
portant cult of paganism until the end of the fourth 
century. Through them as a medium the original 
doctrines of Mazdaism were widely propagated in 
every Latin province, and in order to appreciate the 
influence of Persia upon the Roman creeds, we must 
now give them our careful attention. 

However, it must be said that the growing influence 
of Persia did not manifest itself solely in the religious 
sphere. After the accession of the Sassanid dynasty 
(228 A. D.) the country once more became conscious 
of its originality, again resumed the cultivation of 
national traditions, reorganized the hierarchy of its 
official clergy and recovered the political cohesion 
which had been wanting under the Parthians. It felt 


PERSIA. 141 


and showed its superiority over the neighboring em- 
pire that was then torn by factions, thrown upon the 
mercy of manifestoes, and ruined economically and 
morally. The studies now being made in the history 
of that period show more and more that debilitated 
Rome had become the imitator of Persia. 

In the opinion of contemporaries the court of Dio- 
cletian, prostrating itself before a master who was 
regarded as the equal of God, with its complicated 
hierarchy and crowd of eunuchs that disgraced it, was 
an imitation of the court of the Sassanides. Galerius 
declared in unmistakable terms that Persian absolutism 
must be introduced in his empire,!! and the ancient 
Ceesarism founded on the will of the people seemed 
about to be transformed into a sort of caliphate. 

Recent discoveries also throw light upon a powerful 
artistic school that developed in the Parthian empire 
and later in that of the Sassanides and which grew up 
independently of the Greek centers of production. 
Even if it took certain models from the Hellenic 
sculpture or architecture, it combined them with Ori- 
ental motives into a decoration of exuberant richness. 
Its field of influence extended far beyond Mesopotamia 
into the south of Syria where it has left monuments of 
unequalled splendor. The radiance of that brilliant 
center undoubtedly illuminated Byzantium, the bar- 
barians of the north, and even China.?? 

The Persian Orient, then, exerted a dominant in- 
fluence on the political institutions and artistic tastes 
of the Romans as well as on their ideas and beliefs. 
The propagation of the religion of Mithra, which al- 
ways proudly proclaimed its Persian origin, was ac- 
companied by a number of parallel influences of the 


142 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


people from which it had issued. Never, not even 
during the Mohammedan invasions, had Europe a 
narrower escape from becoming Asiatic than when 
Diocletian officially recognized Mithra as the protector 
of the reconstructed empire.'3 The time when that 
god seemed to be establishing his authority over the 
entire civilized world was one of the critical phases 
in the moral history of antiquity. An irresistible in- 
vasion of Semitic and Mazdean conceptions nearly 
succeeded in permanently overwhelming the Occiden- 
tal spirit. Even after Mithra had been vanquished 
and expelled from Christianized Rome, Persia did not 
disarm. The work of conversion in which Mithraism 
had failed was taken up by Manicheism, the heir to 
its cardinal doctrines, and until the Middle Ages Per- 
sian dualism continued to cause bloody struggles in 
the: ancient Roman provinces. 
sk tiie rok 

Just as we cannot understand the character of the 
mysteries of Isis and Serapis without studying the 
circumstances accompanying their creation by the Ptol- 
emies, sO we cannot appreciate the causes of the 
power attained by the mysteries of Mithra, unless 
we go far back to their origin. 

Here the subject is unfortunately more obscure. 
The ancient authors tell us almost nothing about the 
origin of Mithra. One point on which they all agree 
is that he was a Persian god, but this we should know 
from the Avesta even if they had not mentioned it. 
But how did he get to Italy from the Persian uplands? 

Two scant lines of Plutarch are the most explicit 
document we have on the subject. He narrates in- 
cidentally that the pirates from Asia Minor vanquished 


PERSIA. 143 


by Pompey in 67 performed strange sacrifices on Olym- 
pus, a volcano of Lycia, and practiced occult rites, 
among others those of Mithra which, he says, “exist 
to the present day and were first taught by them.’’'4 
Lactantius Placidus, a commentator on Statius and a 
mediocre authority, also tells us that the cult passed 
from the Persians to the Phrygians and from the 
Phrygians to the Romans.'s 

These two authors agree then in fixing in Asia Minor 
the origin of this Persian religion that later spread 
over the Occident, and in fact various indications direct 
us to that country. The frequency of the name Mithra- 
dates, for instance, in the dynasties of Pontus, Cappa- 
docia, Armenia and Commagene, connected with the 
Achemenides by fictitious genealogies, shows the de- 
votion of those kings to Mithra. 

As we see, the Mithraism that was revealed to the 
Romans at the time of Pompey had established itself 
in the Anatolian monarchies during the preceding pe- 
riod, which was an epoch of intense moral and religious 
unrest. Unfortunately we have no monuments of that 
period of its history. The absence of direct testimony 
on the development of Mazdean sects during the last 
three centuries before our era prevents us from gaining 
exact knowledge of the Parseeism of Asia Minor. 

None of the temples dedicated to Mithra in that 
religion have been examined.’® The inscriptions men- 
tioning his name are as yet few and insignificant, so 
that it is only by indirect means that we can arrive 
at conclusions about this primitive cult. The only 
way to explain its distinguishing features in the Occi- 
dent is to study the environment in which it originated. 

During the domination of the Achemenides eastern 


144 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Asia Minor was colonized by the Persians. The up- 
lands of Anatolia resembled those of Persia in climate 
and soil, and were especially adapted to the raising of 
horses.'7. In Cappadocia and even in Pontus the aris- 
tocracy who owned the soil belonged to the conquering 
nation. Under the various governments which fol- 
lowed after the death of Alexander, those landlords 
remained the real masters of the country, chieftains of 
clans governing the canton where they had their do- 
mains, and, on the outskirts of Armenia at least, they 
retained the hereditary title of satraps through all 
political vicissitudes until the time of Justinian, thus 
recalling their Persian origin.‘® This military and 
feudal aristocracy furnished Mithradates Eupator a 
considerable number of the officers who helped him in 
his long defiance of Rome, and later it defended the 
threatened independence of Armenia against the enter- 
prises of the Czsars. These warriors worshiped 
Mithra as the protecting genius of their arms, and 
this is the reason why Mithra always, even in the 
Latin world, remained the “invincible” god, the tute- 
lary deity of armies, held in special honor by warriors. 

Besides the Persian nobility a Persian clergy had 
also become established in the peninsula. It officiated 
in famous temples, at Zela in Pontus and Hierocesarea 
in Lydia. Magi, called magousaioi or pyrethes (fire- 
lighters) were scattered over the Levant. Like the 
Jews, they retained their national customs and tra- 
ditional rites with such scrupulous loyalty that Barde- 
sanes of Edessa cited them as an example in his at- 
tempt to refute the doctrines of astrology and to show 
that a nation can retain the same customs in different 
climates.19 We know their religion sufficiently to be 


PERSIA. 145 


certain that the Syrian author had good grounds for 
attributing that conservative spirit to them. The sacri- 
fices of the pyrethes which Strabo observed in Cappa- 
docia recall all the peculiarities of the Avestan liturgy. 
The same prayers were recited before the altar of the 
fire while the priest held the sacred fasces (barec¢man) ; 
the same offerings were made of milk, oil and honey; 
and the same precautions were taken to prevent the 
priest’s breath from polluting the divine flame. Their 
gods were practically those of orthodox Mazdaism. 
They worshiped Ahura Mazda, who had to them re- 
mained a divinity of the sky as Zeus and Jupiter had 
been originally. Below him they venerated deified 
abstractions (such as Vohumano, “good mind,” and 
Ameretat, “immortality” ) from which the religion of 
Zoroaster made its Amshaspends, the archangels sur- 
rounding the Most High.2° Finally they sacrificed to 
the spirits of nature, the Yazatas: for instance, Anahita 
or Anaites the goddess of the waters—that made fertile 
the fields; Atar, the personification of fire; and espe- 
cially Mithra, the pure genius of light. 

Thus the basis of the religion of the magi of Asia 
Minor was Mazdaism, somewhat changed from that 
of the Avesta, and in certain respects holding closer to 
the primitive nature worship of the Aryans, but never- 
theless a clearly characterized and distinctive Mazda- 
ism, which was to remain the most solid foundation 
for the greatness of the mysteries of Mithra in the 
Occident. | 

Recent discoveries?! of bilingual inscriptions have 
succeeded in establishing the fact that the language 
used, or at least written, by the Persian colonies of 
Asia Minor was not their ancient Aryan idiom, but 


146 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Aramaic, which was a Semitic dialect. Under the 
Achemenides this was the diplomatic and commercial 
language of all countries west of the Tigris. In Cappa- 
docia and Armenia it remained the literary and prob- 
ably also the liturgical language until it was slowly 
supplanted by Greek during the Hellenistic period. 
The very name magousaio1* given to the magi in those 
countries is an exact transcription of a Semitic plural.?? 
. This phenomenon, surprising at first sight, is explained 
by the history of the magousaioi who emigrated to 
Asia Minor. They did not come there directly from 
Persepolis or Susa, but from Mesopotamia. Their 
religion had been deeply influenced by the speculations 
of the powerful clergy officiating in the temples of 
Babylon. The learned theology of the Chaldeans im- 
posed itself on the primitive Mazdaism, which was a 
collection of traditions and rites rather than a body 
of doctrines. The divinities of the two religions be- 
came identified, their legends connected, and the Sem- 
itic astrology, the result of long continued scientific 
observations, superimposed itself on the naturalistic 
myths of the Persians. Ahura Mazda was assimilated 
to Bel, Anahita to Ishtar, and Mithra to Shamash, the 
solar god. For that reason Mithra was commonly 
called Sol invictus in the Roman mysteries, and an 
abstruse and a complicated astronomic symbolism was 
always part of the teachings revealed to candidates for 
initiation and manifested itself also in the artistic em- 
bellishments of the temple. 

In connection with a cult from Commagene we can 
observe rather closely how the fusion of Parseeism 
with Semitic and Anatolian creeds took place, because 


* wayoveator 


PERSIA. 147 


in those regions the form of religious transformations 
was at all times syncretic. On a mountain top in the 
vicinity of a town named Doliche, a deity was wor- 
shiped who after a number of transformations became 
a Jupiter Protector of the Roman armies. Originally 
this god, who was believed to have discovered the use 
of iron, seems to have been brought to Commagene 
by a tribe of blacksmiths, the Chalybes, who had come 
from the north.23 He was represented standing on 
a steer and holding in his hand a two-edged ax, an 
ancient symbol venerated in Crete during the Myce- 
nean age and found also at Labranda in Caria and all 
over Asia Minor.24 The ax symbolized the god’s mas- 
tery over the lightning which splits asunder the trees 
of the forest amidst the din of storms. Once estab- 
lished on Syrian soil, this genius of thunder became 
identified with some local Baal and his cult took up 
all the Semitic features. After the conquests of Cyrus 
and the founding of the Persian domination, this “Lord 
of the heavens” was readily confounded with Ahura 
Mazda, who was likewise “the full circle of heaven,” 
according to a definition of Herodotus,?5 and whom 
the Persians also worshiped on mountain tops. When a 
half Persian, half Hellenic dynasty succeeded Alex- 
ander in Commagene, this Baal became a Zeus Oro- 
masdes* (Ahura Mazda) residing in the sublime ethe- 
real regions. A Greek inscription speaks of the celes- 
tial thrones “on which this supreme divinity receives 
the souls of its worshipers.”?6 In the Latin countries 
“Jupiter Caelus” remained at the head of the Mazdean 
pantheon,?7 and in all the provinces the temples of 


* Zevs ‘Opoudedns, 


148 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


“Jupiter Dolichenus”’ were erected beside those of 
Mithra, and the two remained in the closest relations.?® 

The same series of transformations took place else- 
where with a number of other gods.2? The Mithra 
worship was thus formed, in the main, by a combina- 
tion of Persian beliefs with Semitic theology, inciden- 
tally including certain elements from the native cults of 
Asia Minor. The Greeks later translated the names of 
the Persian divinities into their language and imposed 
certain forms of their mysteries on the Mazdean cult.3° 
Hellenic art lent to the Yazatas that idealized form 
in which it liked to represent the immortals, and phi- 
losophy, especially that of the Stoics, endeavored to 
discover its own physical and metaphysical theories 
in the traditions of the magi. But in spite of all these 
accomodations, adaptations and interpretations, Mithra- 
ism always remained in substance a Mazdaism blended 
with Chaldeanism, that is to say, essentially a bar- 
barian religion. It certainly was far less Hellenized 
than the Alexandrian cult of Isis and Serapis, or even 
that of the Great Mother of Pessinus. For that reason 
it always seemed unacceptable to the Greek world, 
from which it continued to be almost completely ex- 
cluded. Even language furnishes a curious proof of 
that fact. Greek contains a number of theophorous* 
(god-bearing) names formed from those of Egyptian 
or Phrygian gods, like Serapion, Metrodoros, Metro- 
philos—Isidore is in use at the present day—but all 
known derivations of Mithra are of barbarian forma- 
tion. The Greeks never admitted the god of their 
hereditary enemies, and the great centers of Hellenic 

* Peoddpos, 


PERSIA. - 149 


civilization escaped his influence and he theirs.3! Mith- 
raism passed directly from Asia into the Latin world. 

There it spread with lightning rapidity from the 
time it was first introduced. When the progressive 
march of the Romans toward the Euphrates enabled 
them to investigate the sacred trust transmitted by 
Persia to the magi of Asia Minor, and when they 
became acquainted with the Mazdean beliefs which 
had matured in the seclusion of the Anatolian moun- 
tains, they adopted them with enthusiasm. The Per- 
sian cult was spread by the soldiers along the entire 
length of the frontiers towards the end of the first 
century and left numerous traces around the camps 
of the Danube and the Rhine, near the stations along 
the wall of Britain, and in the vicinity of the army 
posts scattered along the borders of the Sahara or in 
the valleys of the Asturias. At the same time the 
Asiatic merchants introduced it in the ports of the 
Mediterranean, along the great waterways and roads, 
and in all commercial cities. It also possessed mis- 
sionaries in the Oriental slaves who were to be found 
everywhere, engaging in every pursuit, employed in 
the public service as well as in domestic work, in the 
cultivation of land as well as in financial and mining 
enterprises, and above all in the imperial service, where 
they filled the offices. 

Soon this foreign god gained the favor of high 
functionaries and of the sovereign himself. At the 
end of the second century Commodus was initiated 
into the mysteries, a conversion that had a tremendous 
effect. A hundred vears later Mithra’s power was 
such that at one time he seemed about to eclipse both 
Oriental and Occidental rivals and to dominate the 


150 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


entire Roman world. In the year 307 Diocletian, 
Galerius and Licinius met in a solemn interview at 
Carnuntum on the Danube and dedicated a sanctuary 
there to Mithra, “the protector of their empire” (fau- 
tori imperit sut) 3? 

In previous works on the mysteries of Mithra we 
have endeavored to assign causes for the enthusiasm 
that attracted humble plebeians and great men of the 
world to the altars of this barbarian god. We shall 
not repeat here what any one who has the curiosity 
may read either in a large or a small book according 
to his preferences,33 but we must consider the problem 
from a different point of view. Of all Oriental re- 
ligions the Persian cult was the last to reach the 
Romans. We shall inquire what new principle it con- 
tained ; to what inherent qualities it owed its superior- 
ity; and through what characteristics it remained dis- 
tinct in the conflux of creeds of all kinds that were 
struggling for supremacy in the world at that time. 

The originality and value of the Persian religion lay 
not in its doctrines regarding the nature of the celestial 
gods. Without doubt Parseeism is of all pagan religions 
the one that comes closest to monotheism, for it elevates 
Ahura Mazda high above all other celestial spirits. 
But the doctrines of Mithraism are not those of Zoro- 
aster. What it received from Persia was chiefly its 
mythology and ritual; its theology, which was thor- 
oughly saturated with Chaldean erudition, probably 
did not differ noticeably from the Syrian. At the 
head of the divine hierarchy it placed as first cause an 
abstraction, deified Time, the Zervan Akarana of the 
Avesta. This divinity regulated the revolutions of the 
stars and in consequence was the absolute master of 


PERSIA. 151 


all things. Ahura Mazda, whose throne was in the 
heavens, had become the equivalent of Ba‘al Samuin, 
and even before the magi the Semites had introduced 
into the Occident the worship of the sun, the source of 
all energy and light. Babylonian astrology and astrol- 
atry inspired the theories of the mithreums as well as 
of the Semitic temples, a fact that explains the intimate 
connection of the two cults. This half religious, half 
scientific system which was not peculiarly Persian nor 
original to Mithraism was not the reason for the 
adoption of that worship by the Roman world. 
Neither did the Persian mysteries win the masses 
by their liturgy. Undoubtedly their secret ceremonies 
performed in mountain caves, or at any rate in the 
darkness of the underground crypts, were calculated 
to inspire awe. Participation in the liturgical meals 
gave rise to moral comfort and stimulation. By sub- 
mitting to a sort of baptism the votaries hoped to ex- 
piate their sins and regain an untroubled conscience. 
But the sacred feasts and purifying ablutions connected 
with the same spiritual hopes are found in other Ori- 
ental cults, and the magnificent suggestive ritual of 
the Egyptian clergy certainly was more impressive 
than that of the magi. The mythic drama performed | 
in the grottoes of the Persian god and culminating in 
the immolation of a steer who was considered as the 
creator and rejuvenator of the earth, must have seemed 
less important and affecting than the suffering and 
joy of Isis seeking and reviving the mutilated body 
of her husband, or than the moaning and jubilation 
of Cybele mourning over and reviving her lover Attis. 
But Persia introduced dualism as a fundamental 
principle in religion. It was this that distinguished 


52 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Mithraism from other sects and inspired its dogmatic 
theology and ethics, giving them a rigor and firmness 
unknown to Roman paganism. It considered the uni- 
verse from an entirely new point of view and at the 
same time provided a new goal in life. 

Of course, if we understand by dualism the an- 
tithesis of mind and matter, of reason and intuition, 
it appeared at a considerably earlier period in Greek 
philosophy,3+ where it was one of the leading ideas 
of neo-Pythagoreanism and of Philo’s system. But 
the distinguishing feature of the doctrine of the magi 
is the fact that it deified the evil principle, set it up 
as a rival to the supreme deity, and taught that both 
had to be worshiped. This system offered an ap- 
parently simple solution to the problem of evil, the 
stumbling block of theologies, and it attracted the cul- 
tured minds as well as the masses, to whom it afforded 
an explanation of their sufferings. Just as the mys- 
teries of Mithra began to spread Plutarch wrote of 
them favorably and was inclined himself to adopt 
them.35 From that time dates the appearance in litera- 
ture of the anti-gods,*3° under the command of the 
powers of darkness37 and arrayed against the celestial 
spirits, messengers or “‘angels’’38 of divinity. They were 
Ahriman’s devas struggling with the Yazatas of Or- 
muzd. 

A curious passage in Porphyry39 shows that the ear- 
liest neo-Platonists had already admitted Persian de- 
monology into their system. Below the incorporeal 
and indivisible supreme being, below the stars and the 
planets, there were countless spirits.4° Some of them, 
the gods of cities and nations, received special names: 


* dyrideot, 


PERSIA. 153 


the others comprised a nameless multitude. They 
were divided into two groups. The first were the 
benevolent spirits that gave fecundity to plants and 
animals, serenity to nature, and knowledge to men. 
They acted as intermediaries between gods and men, 
bearing up to heaven the homage and prayers of the 
faithful, and down from heaven portents and warn- 
ings. The others were wicked spirits inhabiting re- 
gions close to the earth and there was no evil that they 
did not exert every effort to cause.41 At the same time 
both violent and cunning, impetuous and crafty, they 
were the authors of all the calamities that befell the 
world, such as pestilence, famine, tempests and earth- 
quakes. They kindled evil passions and illicit desires 
in the hearts of men and provoked war and sedition. 
They were clever deceivers rejoicing in lies and im- 
postures. They encouraged the phantasmagoria and 
mystification of the sorcerers4? and gloated over the 
bloody sacrifices which magicians offered to them all, 
but especially to their chief. 

Doctrines very similar to these were certainly taught 
in the mysteries of Mithra; homage was paid to Ahri- 
man (Arimanius) lord of the somber underworld, and 
master of the infernal spirits.43 This cult has con- 
tinued in the Orient to the present day among the 
Yezidis, or devil worshipers. 

In his treatise against the magi, Theodore of Mop- 
suestia44 speaks of Ahriman as Satan.* At first sight 
there really is a surprising resemblance between the two. 
Both are heads of a numerous army of demons; both 
are spirits of error and falsehood, princes of darkness, 


* Daravas, 


154 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


tempters and corrupters. An almost identical picture 
of the pair could be drawn, and in fact they are prac- 
tically the same figure under different names. It is 
generally admitted that Judaism took the notion of 
an adversary of God4s from the Mazdeans along with 
portions of their dualism. It was therefore natural 
that Jewish doctrine, of which Christianity is heir, 
should have been closely allied to the mysteries of 
Mithra. A considerable part of the more or less ortho- 
dox beliefs and visions that gave the Middle Ages their 
nightmare of hell and the devil thus came from Persia 
by two channels: on the one hand Judeo-Christian 
literature, both canonical and apocryphal; and on the 
other, the remnants of the Mithra cult and the various 
sects of Manicheism that continued to preach the old 
Persian doctrines on the antagonism between the two 
world principles. 

But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas 
that satisfy it, does not suffice to convert it to a new 
religion. There must be motives of conduct and a 
basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Per- 
sian dualism was not only a powerful metaphysical 
conception ; it was also the foundation of a very effi- 
cacious system of ethics, and this was the chief agent 
in the success of the mysteries of Mithra during the 
second and third centuries in the Roman world then 
animated by unrealized aspirations for more perfect 
justice and holiness. 

A sentence of the Emperor Julian,4® unfortunately 
too brief, tells us that Mithra subjected his worshipers 
to “commandments’”* and rewarded faithful observ- 
ance both in this world and in the next. The impor- 


* éyroXalt, 


PERSIA. ibd 


tance attached by the Persians to their peculiar ethics 
and the rigor with which they observed its precepts, 
are perhaps the most striking features of their national 
character as manifested in history. They were a race 
of conquerors subject to a severe discipline, like the 
Romans, and like them they realized the necessity of 
discipline in the administration of a vast empire. Cer- 
tain affinities between the two imperial nations con- 
nected them directly without the mediation of the 
Greek world. Mazdaism brought long awaited satis- 
faction to the old-time Roman desire for a practical 
religion that would subject the individual to a rule of 
conduct and contribute to the welfare of the state.47 
Mithra infused a new vigor into the paganism of the 
Occident by introducing the imperative ethics of Per- 
sia. 

Unhappily the text of the Mithraic decalogue has 
not been preserved and its principal commandments 
can be restored only by implication. 

Mithra, the ancient spirit of light, became the god 
of truth and justice in the religion of Zoroaster and 
retained that character in the Occident. He was the 
Maedean Apollo, but while Hellenism, with a finer 
appreciation of beauty, developed the esthetic qualities 
in Apollo, the Persians, caring more for matters of 
conscience, emphasized the moral character in Mithra.48 
The Greeks, themselves little scrupulous in that re- 
spect, were struck by the abhorrence in which their 
Oriental neighbors held a lie. The Persians conceived 
of Ahriman as the embodiment of deceit. Mithra 
was always the god invoked as the guarantor of faith 
and protector of the inviolability of contracts. Ab- 
solute fidelity to his oath had to be a cardinal virtue 


7 


156 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


in the religion of a soldier, whose first act upon en- 
listment was to pledge obedience and devotion to the 
sovereign. This religion exalted loyalty and fidelity 
and undoubtedly tried to inspire a feeling similar to 
our modern idea of honor. 

In addition to respect for authority it preached fra- 
ternity. All the initiates considered themselves as 
sons of the same father owing to one another a broth- 
er’s affection. It is a question whether they extended 
the love of neighbor to that universal charity taught 
by philosophy and Christianity. Emperor Julian, a 
devoted mystic, liked to set up such an ideal, and it 
is probable that the Mithraists of later paganism rose to 
this conception of duty,49 but they were not its authors. 
They seemed to have attached more importance to the 
virile qualities than to compassion and gentleness. 
The fraternal spirit of initiates calling themselves sol- 
diers was doubtless more akin to the spirit of com- 
radeship in a regiment that has esprit de corps, than 
to the love of one’s neighbor that inspires works of 
mercy towards all. 

All primitive people imagine nature filled with un- 
clean and wicked spirits that corrupt and _ torture 
those who disturb their repose; but dualism endowed 
this universal belief with marvelous power as well as 
with a dogmatic basis. Mazdaism is governed through- 
out by ideas of purity and impurity. “No religion on 
earth has ever been so completely dominated by an 
ideal of purification.”5° This kind of perfection was 
the goal of the aspiration and effort of believers. They 
were obliged to guard with infinite precaution against 
defiling the divine elements, for instance water or fire, 
or their own persons, and to wipe out all pollution by 


PERSIA. 157 


repeated lustrations. But, as in the Syrian cults of 
the imperial period, these Mithraic rites did remain 
simply formal, mechanical and of the flesh, inspired 
by the old idea of tabu. Mithraic baptism wiped out 
moral faults ; the purity aimed at had become spiritual. 

This perfect purity distinguishes the mysteries of 
Mithra from those of all other Oriental gods. Serapis 
is the brother and husband of Isis, Attis the lover of 
Cybele, every Syrian Baal is coupled with a spouse; 
but Mithra lives alone. Mithra is chaste, Mithra is 
holy (sanctus) ,5' and for the worship of fecundity he 
substitutes a new reverence for continence. 

However, although resistance to sensuality is laud- 
able and although the ideal of perfection of this Maz- 
dean sect inclined towards the asceticism to which the 
Manichean conception of virtue led, yet good does not 
consist exclusively in abnegation and self-control, but 
also in action. It is not sufficient for a religion to 
classify moral values, but in order to be effective it 
must furnish motives for putting them into practice. 
Dualism was peculiarly favorable for the development 
of individual effort and human energy; here its in- 
fluence was strongest. It taught that the world is the 
scene of a perpetual struggle between two powers that 
share the mastery; the goal to be reached is the dis- 
appearance of evil and the uncontested dominion, the 
exclusive reign, of the good. Animals and plants, as 
well as man, are drawn up in two rival camps per- 
petually hostile, and all nature participates in the eter- 
nal combat of the two opposing principles. The de- 
mons created by the infernal spirit emerge constantly 
from the abyss and roam about the earth; they pene- 
trate everywhere carrying corruption, distress, sick- 


158 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ness and death. The celestial spirits and the sup- 
porters of piety are compelled constantly to baffle their 
ever renewed enterprises. The strife continues in the 
heart and conscience of man, the epitome of the uni- 
verse, between the divine law of duty and the sugges- 
tions of the evil spirits. Life is a merciless war know- 
ing no truce. The task of the true Mazdean consisted 
in constantly fighting the evil in order to bring about 
the gradual triumph of Ormuzd in the world. The 
believer was the assistant of the gods in their work of 
purification and improvement. 

The worshipers of Mithra did not lose themselves 
in a contemplative mysticism like other sects. Their 
morality particularly encouraged action, and during a 
period of laxness, anarchy and confusion, they found 
stimulation, comfort and support in its precepts. Re- 
sistance to the promptings of degrading instincts as- 
sumed the glamor and prestige of warlike exploits in 
their eyes and instilled an active principle of progress 
into their character. By supplying a new conception 
of the world, dualism also gave a new meaning to life. 
This same dualism determined the eschatological be- 
liefs of the Mithraists. The antagonism between 
heaven and hell was extended into the life hereafter.5? 
Mithra, the “invincible” god who assisted the faithful 
in their struggle against the malignity of the demons, 
was not only their strong companion in their human 
trials, but as an antagonist of the infernal powers he 
insured the welfare of his followers in the future life 
as well as on earth. When the genius of corruption 
seizes the corpse after death, the spirits of darkness 
and the celestial messengers struggle for the possession 
of the soul that has left its corporeal prison. It stands 


PERSIA. 159 


trial before Mithra, and if its merits outweigh its 
shortcomings in the divine balance it is defended from 
Ahriman’s agents that seek to drag it into the infernal 
abyss. Finally it is led into the ethereal regions where 
Jupiter-Ormuzd reigns in eternal light. The believers 
in Mithra did not agree with the votaries of Serapis 
who held that the souls of the just reside in the depths 
of the earth53 To them that somber kingdom was 
the domain of wrong-doers. The souls of the just 
live in the boundless light that extends above the 
stars, and by divesting themselves of all sensuality 
and all lust in passing through the planetary spheres54¢ 
they become as pure as the gods whose company they 
enter. 

However, when the world came to an end the body 
also was to share in that happiness because it was be- 
lieved as in Egypt that the whole person would enjoy 
eternal life. After time had run its course Mithra 
would raise all men from the dead, pouring out a 
marvelous beverage of immortality for the good, but 
all evil doers would be annihilated by fire together 
with Ahriman himself. 

sk UR a ak “sof ae 

Of all the Oriental cults none was so severe as 
Mithraism, none attained an equal moral elevation, 
none could have had so strong a hold on mind and 
heart. In many respects it gave its definite religious 
formula to the pagan world and the influence of its 
ideas remained long after the religion itself had come 
to a violent end. Persian dualism introduced certain 
principles into Europe that have never ceased to exert 
an influence. Its whole history proves the thesis with 
which we began, the power of resistance and of in- 


160 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


fluence possessed by Persian culture and religion. 
These possessed ‘an originality so independent that 
after having resisted in the Orient the power of ab- 
sorption of Hellenism, and after having checked the 
Christian propaganda, they even withstood the de- 
structive power of Islam. Firdusi (940-1020) glories 
in the ancient national traditions and the mythical 
heroes of Mazdaism, and while the idolatry of Egypt, 
Syria and Asia Minor has long since died out or 
degenerated, there are votaries of Zoroaster at the 
present day who piously perform the sacred cere- 
monies of the Avesta and practise genuine fire worship. 

Another witness to the vitality of Mithraic Mazda- 
ism is the fact that it escaped becoming a kind of state 
religion of the Roman empire during the third cen- 
tury. An oft-quoted sentence of Renan’s says:55 “If 
Christianity had been checked in its growth by some 
deadly disease, the world would have become Mith- 
raic.” In hazarding that statement he undoubtedly 
conjured up a picture of what would have been the 
condition of this poor world in that case. He must 
have imagined, one of his followers would have us 
believe,5®° that the morals of the human race would 
have been but little changed, a little more virile per- 
haps, a little less charitable, but only a shade differ- 
ent. The erudite theology taught by the mysteries 
would obviously have shown a laudable respect for 
science, but as its dogmas were based upon a false 
physics it would apparently have insured the per- 
sistence of an infinity of errors. Astronomy would — 
not be lacking, but astrology would have been unassail- 
able, while the heavens would still be revolving around 
the earth to accord with its doctrines. The greatest 


PERSIA. 161 


danger, it appears to me, would have been that the 
Czesars would have established a theocratic absolutism 
supported by the Oriental ideas of the divinity of 
kings. The union of throne and altar would have been 
inseparable, and Europe would never have known the 
invigorating struggle between church and state. But 
on the other hand the discipline of Mithraism, so pro- 
ductive of individual energy, and the democratic or- 
ganization of its societies in which senators and slaves 
rubbed elbows, contain a germ of liberty. 

We might dwell at some length on these contrasting 
possibilities, but it is hard to find a mental pastime 
less profitable than the attempt to remake history and 
to conjecture on what might have been had events 
proved otherwise. If the torrent of actions and re- 
actions that carries us along were turned out of its 
course what imagination could describe the unknown 
regions through which it would flow? 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 


HEN we consider the absolute authority that 

astrology exercised under the Roman empire, 
we find it hard to escape a feeling of surprise. It is 
difficult to think that people could ever consider astrol- 
ogy as the most valuable of all arts and the queen 
of sciences,' and it is not easy for us to imagine the 
moral conditions that made such a phenomenon pos- 
sible, because our state of mind to-day is very different. 
Little by little the conviction has gained ground that 
all that can be known about the future, at least the 
future of man and of human society, is conjecture, 
The progress of knowledge has taught man to ac- 
quiesce in his ignorance. 

In former ages it was different: forebodings and 
predictions found universal credence. The ancient 
forms of divination, however, had fallen somewhat 
into disrepute at the beginning of our era, like the 
rest of the Greco-Roman religion. It was no longer 
thought that the eagerness or reluctance with which 
the sacred hens ate their paste, or the direction of the 
flight of the birds indicated coming success or disaster. 
Abandoned, the Hellenic oracles were silent. Then — 
appeared astrology, surrounded with all the prestige 
of an exact science, and based upon the experience of 
many centuries. It promised to ascertain the occur- 


9? 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 163 


rences of any one’s life with as much precision as the 
date of an eclipse. The world was drawn towards it 
by an irresistible attraction. Astrology did away with, 
and gradually relegated to oblivion, all the ancient 
methods that had been devised to solve the enigmas of 
the future. Haruspicy and the augural art were aban- 
doned, and not even the ancient fame of the oracles 
could save them from falling into irretrievable desue- 
tude. This great chimera changed religion as well as 
divination, its spirit penetrated everything. And truly, 
if, as some scholars still hold, the main feature of 
science is the ability to predict,? no branch of learning 
could compare with this one, nor escape its influence. 

The success of astrology was connected with that of 
the Oriental religions, which lent it their support, as 
it in turn helped them. We have seen how it forced 
itself upon Semitic paganism, how it transformed Per- 
sian Mazdaism and even subdued the arrogance of the 
Egyptian sacerdotal caste.3 Certain mystical treatises 
ascribed to the old Pharaoh Nechepso and his con- 
fidant, the priest Petosiris, nebulous and abstruse works 
that became, one might say, the Bible of the new belief 
in the power of the stars, were translated into Greek, 
undoubtedly in Alexandria, about the year 150 before 
our era.4 About the same time the Chaldean genethlial- 
ogy began to spread in Italy, with regard to which 
Berosus, a priest of the god Baal, who came to Baby- 
lon from the island of Cos, had previously succeeded 
in arousing the curiosity of the Greeks. In 139 a 
pretor expelled the “Chaldaei’’ from Rome, together 
with the Jews. But all the adherents of the Syrian 
goddess, of whom there was quite a number in the 
Occident, were patrons and defenders of these Oriental 


164 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


prophets, and police measures were no more successful 
in: stopping the diffusion of their doctrines, than in the 
case of the Asiatic mysteries. In the time of Pompey, 
the senator Nigidius Figulus, who was an ardent oc- 
cultist, expounded the barbarian uranography in Latin. 
But the scholar whose authority contributed most to 
the final acceptance of sidereal divination was a Syrian 
philosopher of encyclopedic knowledge, Posidonius of 
Apamea, the teacher of Cicero.s The works of that 
erudite and religious writer influenced the develop- 
ment of the entire Roman theology more than anything 
else. 

Under the empire, while the Semitic Baals and Mithra 
were triumphing, astrology manifested its power every- 
where. During that period everybody bowed to it. 
The Cesars became its fervent devotees, frequently 
at the expense of the ancient cults. Tiberius neglected 
the gods because he believed only in fatalism,®° and Otho, 
blindly confiding in the Oriental seer, marched against 
Vitellius in spite of the baneful presages that affrighted 
his official clergy.7, The most earnest scholars, Ptolemy 
under the Antonines for instance, expounded the prin- 
ciples of that pseudo-science, and the very best minds 
received them. In fact, scarcely anybody made a dis- 
tinction between astronomy and its illegitimate sister. 
Literature took up this new and difficult subject, and, 
as early as the time of Augustus or Tiberius, Manilius, 
inspired by the sidereal fatalism, endeavored to make 
poetry of that dry “mathematics,” as Lucretius, his 
forerunner, had done with the Epicurean atomism. 
Even art looked there for inspiration and depicted the 
stellar deities. At Rome and in the provinces archi- 
tects erected sumptuous septizonia in the likeness of 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC, 165 


the seven spheres in which the planets that rule our 
destinies move.’ This Asiatic divination was first aristo- 
cratic?9—because the obtaining of an exact horoscope 
was a complicated matter, and consultations were ex- 
pensive—but it promptly became popular, especially 
in the urban centers where Oriental slaves gathered in 
large numbers. The learned genethlialogers of the ob- 
servatories had unlicensed colleagues, who told for- 
tunes at street-crossings or in barnyards. Even com- 
mon epitaphs, which Rossi styles “the scum of inscrip- 
tions,’ have retained traces of that belief. The cus- 
tom arose of stating in epitaphs the exact length of a 
life to the very hour, for the moment of birth deter- 
mined that of death: 


Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.t° 


Soon neither important nor small matters were 
undertaken without consulting the astrologer. His 
previsions were sought not only in regard to great 
public events like the conduct of a war, the founding 
of a city, or the accession of a ruler, not only in case 
of a marriage, a journey, or a change of domicile; but 
the most trifling acts of every-day life were gravely 
submitted to his sagacity. People would no longer 
take a bath, go to the barber, change their clothes or 
manicure their fingernails, without first awaiting the 
propitious moment.'! The collections of “initiatives’’* 
that have come to us contain questions that make us 
smile: Will a son who is about to be born have a big 
nose? Will a girl just coming into this world have 
gallant adventures??? And certain precepts sound al- 
most like burlesques: he who gets his hair cut while 


* KaTapxal, 


166 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the moon is in her increase will become bald—evidently 
by analogy.13 

The entire existence of states and individuals, down 
to the slightest incidents, was thought to depend on 
the stars. The absolute control they were supposed 
to exercise over everybody’s daily condition, even mod- 
ified the language in every-day use and left traces in 
almost all idioms derived from the Latin. If we 
speak of a martial, or a jovial character, or a lunatic, 
we are unconsciously admitting the existence, in these 
heavenly bodies (Mars, Jupiter, Luna) of their an- 
cient qualities. 

It must be acknowledged, however, that the Grecian 
spirit tried to combat the folly that was taking hold 
of the world, and from the time of its propagation 
astrology found opponents among the philosophers. 
The most subtle of these adversaries was the proba- 
bilist Carneades, in the second century before our era. 
The topical arguments which he advanced, were taken 
up, reproduced, and developed in a thousand ways by 
later polemicists. For instance, Were all the men that 
perish together in a battle, born at the same moment, 
because they had the same fate? Or, on the other 
hand, do we not observe that twins, born at the same 
time, have the most unlike characters and the most 
different fortunes? 

But dialectics are an accomplishment in which the 
Greeks ever excelled, and the defenders of astrology 
found a reply to every objection. They endeavored 
especially to establish firmly the truths of observation, 
upon which rested the entire learned structure of their 
art: the influence of the stars over the phenomena of 
nature and the characters of individuals. Can it be 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 167 


denied, they said, that the sun causes vegetation to 
appear and to perish, and that it puts animals en rut 
or plunges them into lethargic sleep? Does not the 
movement of the tide depend on the course of the 
moon? Is not the rising of certain constellations ac- 
companied every year by storms? And are not the 
physical and moral qualities of the different races mani- 
festly determined by the climate in which they live? 
The action of the sky on the earth is undeniable, and, 
the sidereal influences once admitted, all previsions 
based on them are legitimate. As soon as the first 
principle is admitted, all corollaries are logically de- 
rived from it. 

This way of reasoning was universally considered 
irrefutable. Before the advent of Christianity, which 
especially opposed it because of its idolatrous character, 
astrology had scarcely any adversaries except those 
who denied the possibility of science altogether, namely, 
the neo-Academicians, who held that man could not 
attain certainty, and such radical sceptics as Sextus 
Empiricus. Upheld by the Stoics, however, who with 
very few exceptions were in favor of astrology, it can 
be maintained that it emerged triumphant from the 
first assaults directed against it. The only result of 
the objections raised to it was to modify some of its 
theories. Later, the general weakening of the spirit of 
criticism assured astrology an almost uncontested do- 
mination. Its adversaries did not renew their polemics ; 
they limited themselves to the repetition of arguments 
that had been opposed, if not refuted, a hundred times, 
and consequently seemed worn out. At the court of 
the Severi any one who should have denied the in- 
fluence of the planets upon the events of this world 


168 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


would have been considered more preposterous than 
he who would admit it to-day. 

But, you will say, if the theorists did not succeed in 
proving the doctrinal falsity of astrology, experience 
should have shown its worthlessness. Errors must 
have occurred frequently and must have been fol- 
lowed by cruel disillusionment. Having lost a child 
at the age of four for whom a brilliant future had been 
predicted, the parents stigmatized in the epitaph the 
“lying mathematician whose great renown deluded 
them.”!4 Nobody thought of denying the possibility of 
such errors. Manuscripts have been preserved, wherein 
the makers of horoscopes themselves candidly and 
learnedly explain how they were mistaken in such and 


such a case, because they had not taken into account 


some one of the data of the problem.t5 Manilius, in 
spite of his unlimited confidence in the power of rea- 
son, hesitated at the complexity of an immense task 
that seemed to exceed the capacity of human intelli- 
gence,'® and in the second century, Vettius Valens bit- 
terly denounced the contemptible bunglers who claimed 
to be prophets, without having had the long training 
necessary, and who thereby cast odium and ridicule 
upon astrology, in the name of which they pretended 
to operate.!7 It must be remembered that astrology, like 
medicine, was not only a science,* but also an art.t 
This comparison, which sounds irreverent to-day, was 
a flattering one in the eyes of the ancients.‘ To ob- 
serve the sky was as delicate a task as to observe the 


human body; to cast the horoscope of a newly born - 


child, just as perilous as to make a diagnosis, and to 
interpret the cosmic symptoms just as hard as to inter- 


* €rioTnun. + TéxYN 


 ——— 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 169 


pret those of our organism. In both instances the 
elements were complex and the chances of error in- 
finite. All the examples of patients dying in spite of 
the physician, or on account of him, will never keep 
a person who is tortured by physical pain from appeal- 
ing to him for help; and similarly those whose souls 
were troubled with ambition or fear turned to the 
astrologer for some remedy for the moral fever tor- 
menting them. The calculator, who claimed to deter- 
mine the moment of death, and the medical practi- 
tioner who claimed to avert it received the anxious 
patronage of people worried by this formidable issue. 
Furthermore, just as marvelous cures were reported, 
striking predictions were called to mind or, if need 
were, invented. The diviner had, as a rule, only a 
restricted number of possibilities to deal with, and the 
calculus of probabilities shows that he must have suc- 
ceeded sometimes. Mathematics, which he invoked, 
was in his favor after all, and chance frequently cor- 
rected mischance. Moreover, did not the man who 
had a well-frequented consulting-office, possess a thou- 
sand means, if he was clever, of placing all the chances 
on his side, in the hazardous profession he followed, 
and of reading in the stars anything he thought ex- 
pedient? He observed the earth rather than the sky, 
and took care not to fall into a well. 


* KOK 


However, what helped most to make astrology in- 
vulnerable to the blows of reason and of common 
sense, was the fact that in reality, the apparent rigor 
of its calculus and its theorems notwithstanding, it 
was not a science but a faith. We mean not only that 


170 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


it implied belief in postulates that could not be proved 
—the same thing might be said of almost all of our 
poor human knowledge, and even our systems of phys- 
ics and cosmology in the last analysis are based upon 
hypotheses—but that astrology was born and reared 
in the temples of Chaldea and Egypt.19 Even in the 
Occident it never forgot its sacerdotal origin and 
never more than half freed itself from religion, whose 
offspring it was. Here lies the connection between 
astrology and the Oriental religions, and I wish to 
draw the reader’s special attention to this point. 

The Greek works and treatises on astrology that 
have come down to us reveal this essential feature 
only very imperfectly. The Byzantines stripped this 
pseudo-science, always regarded suspiciously by the 
church, of everything that savored of paganism. Their 
process of purification can, in some instances, be traced 
from manuscript to manuscript.2° If they retained the 
name of some god or hero of mythology, the only 
way they dared to write it was by cryptography. They 
have especially preserved purely didactic treatises, the 
most perfect type of which is Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos 
which has been constantly quoted and commented 
upon; and they have reproduced almost exclusively 
expurgated texts, in which the principles of various 
doctrines are drily summarized. During the classic 
age works of a different character were commonly 
read. Many “Chaldeans” interspersed their cosmo- 
logical calculations and theories with moral consid- 
erations and mystical speculations. In the first part 
of a work that he names “Vision,’* Critodemus, in 
prophetic language, represents the truths he reveals 


*’Opacts, 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 171 


as a secure harbor of refuge from the storms of this 
world, and he promises his readers to raise them to 
the rank of immortals.?? | Vettius Valens, a contempo- 
rary of Marcus Aurelius, implored them in solemn 
terms, not to divulge to the ignorant and impious the 
arcana he was about to acquaint them with.?2? The 
astrologers liked to assume the appearance of incor- 
ruptible and holy priests and to consider their calling 
a sacerdotal one.?3 In fact, the two ministries sometimes 
combined: A dignitary of the Mithraic clergy called 
himself studiosus astrologiae?4 in his epitaph, and a 
member of a prominent family of Phrygian prelates 
celebrated in verse the science of divination which 
enabled him to issuea number of infallible predictions.?5 
The sacred character of astrology revealed itself in 
some passages that escaped the orthodox censure and 
in the tone some of its followers assumed, but we must 
go further and show that astrology was religious in 
its principles as well as in its conclusions, the debt 
it owed to mathematics and observation notwithstand- 
ing. # | 
The fundamental dogma of astrology, as conceived 
by the Greeks, was that of universal solidarity. The 
world is a vast organism, all the parts of which are 
connected through an unceasing exchange of molecules 
of effluvia. The stars, inexhaustible generators of en- 
ergy, constantly act upon the earth and man—upon 
man, the epitome of all nature, a “microcosm” whose 
every element corresponds to some part of the starry 
sky. This was, in a few words, the theory formulated by 
the Stoic disciples of the Chaldeans ;?* but if we divest 
it of all the philosophic garments with which it has 
been adorned, what do we find? The idea of sym- 


172 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


pathy, a belief as old as human society! The savage 
peoples also established mysterious relations between 
all bodies and all the beings that inhabit the earth 
and the heavens, and which to them were animated 
with a life of their own endowed with latent power, 
but we shall speak of this later on, when taking up 
the subject of magic. Even before the propagation 
of the Oriental religions, popular superstition in Italy 
and Greece attributed a number of odd actions to the 
sun, the moon, and the constellations as well.?7 

The Chaldaei, however, claimed a predominant 
power for the stars. In fact, they were regarded as 
gods par excellence by the religion of the ancient Chal- 
deans in its beginnings. The sidereal religion of Baby- 
lon concentrated deity, one might say, in the luminous 
moving bodies at the expense of other natural objects, 
such as stones, plants, animals, which the primitive 
Semitic faith considered equally divine. The stars 
always retained this character, even at Rome. They 
were not, as to us, infinitely distant bodies moving in 
space according to the inflexible laws of mechanics, 
and whose chemical composition may be determined. 
To the Latins as to the Orientals, they were propitious 
or baleful deities, whose ever-changing relations de- 
termined the events of this world. 

The sky, whose unfathomable depth had not yet 
been perceived, was peopled with heroes and mon- 
sters of contrary passions, and the struggle above had 
an immediate echo upon earth. By what principle 
have such a quality and so great an influence been 
attributed to the stars? Is it for reasons derived from 
their apparent motion and known through observation 
or experience? Sometimes. Saturn made people apa- 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. Wa 


thetic and irresolute, because it moved most slowly 
of all the planets.28 But in most instances purely mytho- 
logical reasons inspired the precepts of astrology. The 
seven planets were associated with certain deities, 
Mars, Venus, or Mercury, whose character and _ his- 
tory are known to all. It is sufficient simply to pro- 
nounce their names to call to mind certain personal- 
ities that may be expected to act according to their 
natures, in every instance. It was natural for Venus 
to favor lovers, and for Mercury to assure the success 
of business transactions and dishonest deals. The same 
applies to the constellations, with which a number of 
legends are connected: “catasterism’’ or translation 
into the stars, became the natural conclusion of a 
great many tales. The heroes of mythology, or even 
those of human society, continued to live in the sky 
in the form of brilliant stars. There Perseus again 
met Andromeda, and the Centaur Chiron, who is none 
other than Sagittarius, was on terms of good fellow- 
ship with the Dioscuri. 

These constellations, then, assumed to a certain ex- 
tent the good and the bad qualities of the mythical or 
historical beings that had been transferred upon them. 
For instance, the serpent, which shines near the north- 
ern pole, was the author of medical cures, because it 
was the animal sacred to A*sculapius.?9 

The religious foundation of the rules of astrology, 
however, can not always be recognized. Sometimes 
it is entirely forgotten, and in such cases the rules 
assume the appearance of axioms, or of laws based 
upon long observation of celestial phenomena. Here 
we have a simple aspect of science. The process of 


174 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


assimilation with the gods and catasterism were known 
in the Orient long before they were practiced in Greece. 

The traditional outlines that we reproduce on our 
celestial maps are the fossil remains of a luxuriant 
mythological vegetation, and besides our classic sphere 
the ancients knew another, the “barbarian” sphere, 
peopled with a world of fantastic persons and animals. 
These sidereal monsters, to whom powerful qualities 
were ascribed, were likewise the remnants of a multi- 
tude of forgotten beliefs. Zoolatry was abandoned 
in the temples, but people continued to regard as divine 
the lion, the bull, the bear, and the fishes, which the 
Oriental imagination had seen in the starry vault. Old 
totems of the Semitic tribes or of the Egyptian divi- 
sions lived again, transformed into constellations. Het- 
erogeneous elements, taken from all the religions of 
the Orient, were combined in the uranography of the 
ancients, and in the power ascribed to the phantoms 
that it evoked, vibrates in the indistinct echo of an- 
cient devotions that are often completely unknown 
to us.3° 

Astrology, then, was religious in its origin and in 
its principles. It was religious also in its close rela- 
tion to the Oriental religions, especially those of the 
Syrian Baals and of Mithra; finally, it was religious 
in the effects that it produced. I do not mean the 
effects expected from a constellation in any particular 
instance: as for example the power to evoke the gods 
that were subject to their domination.3' But I have in 
mind the general influence those doctrines exercised 
upon Roman paganism. 

When the Olympian gods were incorporated among 
the stars, when Saturn and Jupiter became planets and 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. ra5 


the celestial virgin a sign of the zodiac, they assumed 
a character very different from the one they had orig- 
inally possessed. It has been shown3? how, in Syria, 
the idea of an infinite repetition of cycles of years 
according to which the celestial revolutions took place, 
led to the conception of divine eternity, how the theory 
of a fatal domination of the stars over the earth 
brought about that of the omnipotence of the “lord of 
the heavens,” and how the introduction of a universal 
religion was the necessary result of the belief that the 
stars exerted an influence upon the peoples of every 
climate. The logic of all these consequences of the 
principles of astrology was plain to the Latin as well 
as to the Semitic races, and caused a rapid transforma- 
tion of the ancient idolatry. As in Syria, the sun, 
which the astrologers called the leader of the planetary 
choir, “who is established as king and leader of the 
whole world,’’33 necessarily became the highest power 
of the Roman pantheon. 

Astrology also modified theology, by introducing 
into this pantheon a great number of new gods, some 
of whom were singularly abstract. Thereafter man 
worshiped the constellations of the firmament, particu- 
tarly the twelve signs of the zodiac, every one of which 
had its mythologic legend ; the sky (Caelus) itself, be- 
cause it was considered the first cause, and was some- 
times confused with the supreme being; the four ele- 
ments, the antithesis and perpetual transmutations of 
which produced all tangible phenomena, and which 
were often symbolized by a group of animals ready to 
devour each other ;34 finally, time and its subdivisions.35 

The calendars were religious before they were secu- 
lar ; their purpose was not, primarily, to record fleeting 


176 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


time, but to observe the recurrence of propitious or 
inauspicious dates separated by periodic intervals. It 
is a matter of experience that the return of certain 
moments is associated with the appearance of certain 
phenomena; they have, therefore, a special efficacy, 
and are endowed with a sacred character. By deter- 
mining periods with mathematical exactness, astrology 
continued to see in them “a divine power,’’3° to use 
Zeno’s term. Time, that regulates the course of the 
stars and the transubstantiation of the elements, was 
conceived of as the master of the gods and the primor- 
dial principle, and was likened to destiny. Each part 
of its infinite duration brought with it some propitious 
or evil movement of the sky that was anxiously ob- 
served, and transformed the ever modified universe. 
The centuries, the years and the seasons, placed into 
relation with the four winds and the four cardinal 
points, the tweleve months connected with the zodiac, 
the day and the night, the twelve hours, all were per- 
sonified and deified, as the authors of every change 
in the universe. The allegorical figures contrived for 
these abstractions by astrological paganism did not 
even perish with it.37 The symbolism it had dissemi- 
nated outlived it, and until the Middle Ages these 
pictures of fallen gods were reproduced indefinitely in 
sculpture, mosaics, and in Christian miniatures.3® 
Thus astrology entered into all religious ideas, and 
the doctrines of the destiny of the world and of man 
harmonized with its teachings. According to Berosus, 
who is the interpreter of ancient Chaldean theories, 
the existence of the universe consisted of a series of 
“big years,’ each having its summer and its winter. 
Their summer took place when all the planets were in 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 1/7 


conjunction at the same point of Cancer, and brought 
with it a general conflagration. On the other hand, 
their winter came when all the planets were joined 
in Capricorn, and its result was a universal flood. 
Each of these cosmic cycles, the duration of which 
was fixed at 432,000 years according to the most prob- 
able estimate, was an exact reproduction of those that 
had preceded it. In fact, when the stars resumed 
exactly the same position, they were forced to act 
in identically the same manner as before. This Baby- 
lonian theory, an anticipation of that of the “eternal 
return of things,’ which Nietzsche boasts of having 
discovered, enjoyed lasting popularity during antiquity, 
and in various forms came down to the Renaissance.39 
The belief that the world would be destroyed by fire; 
a theory also spread abroad by the Stoics, found a 
new support in these cosmic speculations. 

Astrology, however, revealed the future not only 
of the universe, but also of man. According to a 
Chaldeo-Persian doctrine, accepted by the pagan mys- 
tics and previously pointed out by us,4° a bitter ne- 
cessity compelled the souls that dwell in great num- 
bers on the celestial heights, to descend upon this 
earth and to animate certain bodies that are to hold 
them in captivity. In descending to the earth they 
travel through the spheres of the planets and receive 
some quality from each of these wandering stars, ac- 
cording to its positions. Contrariwise, when death 
releases them from their carnal prison, they return 
to their first habitation, providing they have led a pious 
life, and if as they pass through the doors of the super- 
posed heavens they divest themselves of the passions 
and inclinations acquired during their first journey, 


178 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


to ascend finally, as pure essence to the radiant abode 
of the gods. There they live forever among the eternal 
stars, freed from the tyranny of destiny and even from 
the limitations of time. 

This alliance of the theorems of astronomy with 
their old beliefs supplied the Chaldeans with answers 
to all the questions that men asked concerning the 
relation of heaven and earth, the nature of God, the 
existence of the world, and their own destiny. Astrol- 
ogy was really the first scientific theology. Hellenistic 
logic arranged the Oriental doctrines properly, com- 
bined them with the Stoic philosophy and built them 
up into a system of indiputable grandeur, an ideal 
reconstruction of the universe, the powerful assurance 
of which inspired Manilius to sublime language when 
he was not exhausted by his efforts to master an ill- 
adapted theme.44 The vague and irrational notion of 
“sympathy” is transformed into a deep sense of the 
relationship between the human soul, an igneous sub- 
stance, and the divine stars, and this feeling is strength- 
ened by thought.42, The contemplation of the sky has 
become a communion. During the splendor of night 
the mind of man became intoxicated with the light 
streaming from above; born on the wings of enthu- 
siasm, he ascended into the sacred choir of the stars 
and took part in their harmonious movements. “He 
participates in their immortality, and, before his ap- 
pointed hour, converses with the gods.”43 In spite of 
the subtle precision the Greeks always maintained in 
their speculations, the feeling that permeated astrol- 
ogy down to the end of paganism never belied its 
‘Oriental and religious origin. 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 179 


The most essential principle of astrology was that 
of fatalism. As the poet says :44 


‘““Fata regunt orbem, certa stant omnia lege.” 


The Chaldeans were the first to conceive the idea of 
an inflexible necessity ruling the universe, instead of 
gods acting in the world according to their passions, 
like men in society. They noticed that an immutable 
law regulated the movements of the celestial bodies, 
and, in the first enthusiasm of their discovery they 
extended its effects to all moral and social phenomena. 
The postulates of astrology imply an absolute deter- 
minism. Tyche, or deified fortune, became the irre- 
sistible mistress of mortals and immortals alike, and 
was even worshiped exclusively by some under the 
empire. Our deliberate will never plays more than a 
very limited part in our happiness and success, but, 
among the pronunciamentos and in the anarchy of the 
third century, blind chance seemed to play with the 
life of every one according to its fancy, and it can 
easily be understood that the ephemeral rulers of that 
period, like the masses, saw in chance the sovereign 
disposer of their fates.45 

The power of this fatalist conception during an- 
tiquity may be measured by its long persistence, at 
least in the Orient, where it originated. Starting from 
Babylonia,#° it spread over the entire Hellenic world, as 
early as the Alexandrian period, and towards the end 
of paganism a considerable part of the efforts of the 
Christian apologists was directed against it.47 But it 
was destined to outlast all attacks, and to impose itself 
even on Islam.48 In Latin Europe, in spite of the ana- 
themas of the church, the belief remained confusedly 


180 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


alive all through the Middle Ages that on this earth 
everything happens somewhat 


- “Per ovra delle rote magne, 
Che drizzan ciascun seme ad alcun fine 
Secondo che le stella son campagne.”49 


The weapons used by the ecclesiastic writers in con- 
tending against this sidereal fatalism were taken from 
the arsenal of the old Greek dialectics. In general, 
they were those that all defenders of free will had used 
for centuries: determinism destroys responsibility ; re- 
wards and punishments are absurd if man acts under 
a necessity that compels him, if he is born a hero or 
a criminal. We shall not dwell on these metaphysical 
discussions,5° but there is one argument that is more 
closely connected with our subject, and therefore should 
be mentioned. If we live under an immutable fate, 
no supplication can change its decisions; religion is 
unavailing, it is useless to ask the oracles to reveal the 
secrets of a future which nothing can change, and pray- 
ers, to use one of Seneca’s expressions, are nothing 
but “the solace of diseased minds.”’5! 

And, doubtless, some adepts of astrology, like the 
Emperor Tiberius,5? neglected the practice of religion, 
because they were convinced that fate governed all 
things. Following the example set by the Stoics, they 
made absolute submission to an almighty fate and joy- 
ful acceptance of the inevitable a moral duty, and were 
satisfied to worship the superior power that ruled the 
universe, without demanding anything in return. They 
considered themselves at the mercy of even the most 
capricious fate, and were like the intelligent slave who 
guesses the desires of his master to satisfy them, and 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 181 


knows how to make the hardest servitude tolerable.53 
The masses, however, never reached that height of 
resignation. They looked at astrology far more from 
a religious than from a logical standpoint.54 The planets 
and constellations were not only cosmic forces, whose 
favorable or inauspicious action grew weaker or 
stronger according to the turnings of a course estab- 
lished for eternity; they were deities who saw and 
heard, who were glad or sad, who had a voice and 
sex, who were prolific or sterile, gentle or savage, ob- 
sequious or arrogant.55 Their anger could therefore be 
soothed and their favor obtained through rites and 
offerings ; even the adverse stars were not unrelenting 
and could be persuaded through sacrifices and suppli- 
cations. The narrow and pedantic Firmicus Maternus 
strongly asserts the omnipotence of fate, but at the 
same time he invokes the gods and asks for their aid 
against the influence of the stars. As late as the fourth 
century the pagans of Rome who were about to marry, 
or to make a purchase, or to solicit a public office, 
went to the diviner for his prognostics, at the same 
time praying to Fate for prosperity in their under- 
taking.5© Thus a fundamental antinomy manifested it- 
self all through the development of astrology, which 
pretended to be an exact science, but always remained 
a sacerdotal theology. 

Of course, the more the idea of fatalism imposed 
itself and spread, the more the weight of this hopeless 
theory oppressed the consciousness. Man felt himself 
dominated and crushed by blind forces that dragged 
him on as irresistibly as they kept the celestial spheres 
in motion. His soul tried to escape the oppression of 
this cosmic mechanism, and to leave the slavery of 


182 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Ananke. But he no longer had confidence in the cere- 
monies of his old religion. The new powers that had 
taken possession of heaven had to be propitiated by 
new means. The Oriental religions themselves offered 
a remedy against the evils they had created, and taught 
powerful and mysterious processes for conjuring fate.57 
And side by side with astrology we see magic, a more 
pernicious aberration, gaining gronud.5 


i iS 


If, from the reading of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, we 
pass on to read a magic papyrus, our first impression 
is that we have stepped from one end of the intellec- 
tual world to the other. Here we find no trace of the 
systematic order or severe method that distinguish the 
work of the scholar of Alexandria. Of course, the 
doctrines of astrology are just as chimerical as those 
af magic, but they are deduced with an amount of 
logic, entirely wanting in works of sorcery, that com- 
pels reasoning intellects to accept them. Recipes bor- 
rowed from medicine and popular superstition, primi- 
tive practices rejected or abandoned: by the sacerdotal 
rituals, beliefs repudiated by a progressive moral re- 
ligion, plagiarisms and forgeries of literary or liturgic 
texts, incantations in which the gods of all barbarous 
nations are invoked in unintelligible gibberish, odd and 
disconcerting ceremonies—all these form a chaos in 
which the imagination loses itself, a potpourri in which 
an arbitrary syncretism seems to have attempted to 
create an inextricable confusion. | 

However, if we observe more closely how magic 
operates, we find that it starts out from the same 
principles and acts along the same line of reasoning 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 183 


as astrology. Born during the same period in the 
primitive civilizations of the Orient, both were based 
on a number of common ideas.59 Magic, like astrology, 
proceeded from the principle of universal sympathy, 
yet it did not consider the relation existing between 
the stars traversing the heavens, and physical or moral 
phenomena, but the relation between whatever bodies 
there are. It started out from the preconceived idea 
that an obscure but constant relation exists between 
certain things, certain words, certain persons. This 
connection was established without hesitation between 
dead material things and living beings, because the 
primitive races ascribed a soul and existence simi- 
lar to those of man, to everything surrounding them. 
The distinction between the three kingdoms of nature 
was unknown to them; they were “animists.” The 
life of a person might, therefore, be linked to that of 
a thing, a tree, or an animal, in such a manner that one 
died if the other did, and that any damage suffered by 
one was also sustained by its inseparable associate. 
Sometimes the relation was founded on clearly intelli- 
gible grounds, like a resemblance between the thing and 
the being, as where, to kill an enemy, one pierced a 
waxen figure supposed to represent him. Or a contact, 
even merely passing by, was believed to have created 
indestructible affinities, for instance where the garments 
of an absent person were operated upon. Often, also, 
these imaginary relations were founded on reasons that 
escape us: like the qualities attributed by astrology to 
the stars, they may have been derived from old beliefs 
the memory of which is lost. 

Like astrology, then, magic was a science in some 
respects. First, like the predictions of its sister, it 


184 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


was partly based on observation — observation fre- 
quently rudimentary, superficial, hasty, and erroneous, 
but nevertheless important. It was an experimental 
discipline. Among the great number of facts noted 
by the curiosity of the magicians, there were many 
that received scientific indorsement later on. The at- 
traction of the magnet for iron was utilized by the 
thaumaturgi before it was interpreted by the natural 
philosophers. In the vast compilations that circulated 
under the venerable names of Zoroaster or Hostanes, 
many fertile remarks were scattered among puerile 
ideas and absurd teachings, just as in the Greek trea- 
tises on alchemy that have come down to us. The idea 
that knowledge of the power of certain agents enables 
one to stimulate the hidden forces of the universe into 
action and to obtain extraordinary results, inspires the 
researches of physics to-day, just as it inspired the 
claims of magic. And if astrology was a perverted 
astronomy, magic was physics gone astray. 
Moreover, and again like astrology, magic was a 
science, because it started from the fundamental con- 
ception that order and law exist in nature, and that 
the same cause always produces the same effect. An 
occult ceremony, performed with the same care as an 
experiment in the chemical laboratory, will always have 
the expected result. To know the mysterious affinities 
that connect all things is sufficient to set the mechanism 
of the universe into motion. But the error of the 
magicians consisted in establishing a connection be- 
tween phenomena that do not depend on each other 
at all. The act of exposing to the light for an instant a 
sensitive plate in a camera, then immersing it, according 
to given recipes, in appropriate liquids, and of making 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 185 


the picture of a relative or friend appear thereon, is a 
magical operation, but based on real actions and reac- 
tions, instead of on arbitrarily assumed sympathies and 
antipathies. Magic, therefore, was a science groping 
in the dark, and later became “a bastard sister of sci- 
ence,’ as Frazer puts it. 

But, like astrology, magic was religious in origin, 
and always remained a bastard sister of religion. Both 
grew up together in the temples of the barbarian 
Orient. Their practices were, at first, part of the 
dubious knowledge of fetichists who claimed to have 
control over the spirits that peopled nature and ani- 
mated everything, and who claimed that they com- 
municated with these spirits by means of rites known 
to themselves alone. Magic has been cleverly defined 
as ‘the strategy of animism.’ But, just as the grow- 
ing power ascribed by the Chaldeans to the sidereal 
deities transformed the original astrology, so primitive 
sorcery assumed a different character when the world 
of the gods, conceived after the image of man, separated 
itself more and more from the realm of physical forces 
and became a realm of its own. This gave the mystic 
element which always entered the ceremonies, a new 
precision and development. By means of his charms, 
talismans, and exorcisms, the magician now communi- 
cated with the celestial or infernal “demons” and com- 
pelled them to obey him. But these spirits no longer 
opposed him with the blind resistance of matter ani- 
mated by an uncertain kind of life; they were active 
and subtle beings having intelligence and will-power. 
Sometimes they took revenge for the slavery the magi- 
cian attempted to impose on them and punished the 
audacious operator, who feared them, although in- 


186 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


voking their aid. Thus the incantation often assumed 
the shape of a prayer addressed to a power stronger 
than man, and magic became a religion. Its rites de- 
veloped side by side with the canonical liturgies, and 
frequently encroached on them.®t The only barrier be- 
tween them was the vague and constantly shifting 
borderline that limits the neighboring domains of re- 
ligion and superstition. 


KSEE NIK AE OK 


This half scientific, half religious magic, with its 
books and its professional adepts, is of Oriental origin. 
The old Grecian and Italian sorcery appears to have 
been rather mild. Conjurations to avert hail-storms, 
or formulas to draw rain, evil charms to render fields 
barren or to kill cattle, love philters and rejuvenating 
salves, old women’s remedies, talismans against the 
evil eye,—all are based on popular superstition and 
kept in existence by folk-lore and charlatanism. Even 
the witches of Thessaly, whom people credited with the 
power of making the moon descend from the sky, were 
botanists more than anything else, acquainted with the 
marvelous virtues of medicinal plants. The terror 
that the necromancers inspired was due, to a con- 
siderable extent, to the use they made of the old belief 
in ghosts. They exploited the superstitious belief in 
ghost-power and slipped metal tablets covered with 
execrations into graves, to bring misfortune or death 
to some enemy. But neither in Greece nor in Italy is 
there any trace of a coherent system of doctrines, of 
an occult and learned discipline, nor of any sacerdotal 
instruction. 

Originally the adepts in this dubious art were de- 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 187 


spised. As late as the period of Augustus they were 
generally equivocal beggar-women who plied their mis- 
erable trade in the lowest quarters of the slums. But 
with the invasion of the Oriental religions the magician 
began to receive more consideration, and his condition 
improved.®? He was honored, and feared even more. 
During the second century scarcely anybody would 
have doubted his power to call up divine apparitions, 
converse with the superior spirits and even translate 
himself bodily into the heavens.®3 

Here the victorious progress of the Oriental re- 
ligions shows itself. The Egyptian ritual®4 originally 
was nothing but a collection of magical practices, 
properly speaking. The religious community imposed 
its will upon the gods by means of prayers or even 
threats. The gods were compelled to obey the off- 
ciating priest, if the liturgy was correctly performed, 
and if the incantations and the magic words were pro- 
nounced with the right intonation. The well-informed 
priest had an almost unlimited power over all super- 
natural beings on land, in the water, in the air, in 
heaven and in hell. Nowhere was the gulf between 
things human and things divine smaller, nowhere was 
the increasing differentiation that separated magic from 
religion less advanced. Until the end of paganism 
they remained so closely associated that it'is sometimes 
difficult to distinguish the texts of one from those of 
the other. 

The Chaldeans®s also were past masters of sorcery, 
well versed in the knowledge of presages and experts 
in conjuring the evils which the presages foretold. 
In Mesopotamia, where they were confidential advisers 
of the kings, the magicians belonged to the official 


188 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


clergy ; they invoked the aid of the state gods in their 
incantations, and their sacred science was as highly 
esteemed as haruspicy in Etruria. The immense pres- 
tige that continued to surround it, assured its persist- 
ence after the fall of Nineveh and Babylon. Its tra- 
dition was still alive under the Cesars, and a number 
of enchanters rightly or wrongly claimed to possess 
the ancient wisdom of Chaldea.® 

And the thaumaturgus, who was supposed to be the 
heir of the archaic priests, assumed a wholly sacerdotal 
appearance at Rome. Being an inspired sage who 
received confidential communications from heavenly 
spirits, he gave to his life and to his appearance a 
dignity almost equal to that of the philosopher. The 
common people soon confused the two,°7 and the Orien- 
talizing philosophy of the last period of paganism 
actually accepted and justified all the superstitions of 
magic. Neo-Platonism, which concerned itself to a 
large extent with demonology, leaned more and more 
towards theurgy, and was finally completely absorbed 
by it. 

But the ancients expressly distinguished, “magic,” 
which was always under suspicion and disapproved 
of, from the legitimate and honorable art for which 
the name “theurgy’’®’ was invented. The term “magi- 
cian,’* which applied to all performers of miracles, 
properly means the priests of Mazdaism, and a well 
attested tradition makes the Persians®9 the authors of 
the real magic, that called “black magic” by the Middle 
Ages. If they did not invent it—because it is as old 
as humanity—they were at least the first to place it 
upon a doctrinal foundation and to assign to it a place 


* ud-yos, 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 189 


in a clearly formulated theological system. The Maz- 
dean dualism gave a new power to this pernicious 
knowledge by conferring upon it the character that 
will distinguish it henceforth. 

Under what influences did the Persian magic come 
into existence? When and how did it spread? These 
are questions that are not well elucidated yet. The 
intimate fusion of the religious doctrines of the Iranian 
conquerors with those of the native clergy, which took 
place at Babylon, occurred in this era of belief,7° and 
the magicians that were established in Mesopotamia 
combined their secret traditions with the rites and 
formulas codified by the Chaldean sorcerers. The uni- 
versal curiosity of the Greeks soon took note of this 
marvelous science. Naturalist philosophers like Democ- 
ritus,7! the great traveler, seem to have helped them- 
selves more than once from the treasure of observa- 
tions collected by the Oriental priests. Without a 
doubt they drew from these incongruous compilations, 
in which truth was mingled with the absurd and reality 
with the fantastical, the knowledge of some properties 
of plants and minerals, or of some experiments of 
physics. However, the limpid Hellenic genius always 
turned away from the misty speculations of magic, 
giving them but slight consideration. But towards the 
end of the Alexandrine period the books ascribed to 
the half-mythical masters of the Persian science, Zoro- 
aster, Hostanes and Hystaspes, were translated into 
Greek, and until the end of paganism those names en- 
joyed a prodigious authority. At the same time the 
Jews, who were acquainted with the arcana of the 
Irano-Chaldean doctrines and proceedings, made some 
of the recipes known wherever the dispersion brought 


190 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


them.72 Later, a more immediate influence was exer- 
cised upon the Roman world by the Persian colonies 
of Asia Minor,73 who retained an obstinate faith in 
their ancient national beliefs. 

The particular importance attributed to magic by 
the Mazdeans is a necessary consequence of their dual- 
ist system, which has been treated by us before.74 Or- 
muzd, residing in the heavens of light, is opposed by 
his irreconcilable adversary, Ahriman, ruler of the 
underworld. The one stands for light, truth, and 
goodness, the other for darkness, falsehood, and per- 
versity. The one commands the kind spirits which 
protect the pious believer, the other is master over 
demons whose malice causes all the evils that afflict 
humanity. These opposite principles fight for the do- 
mination of the earth, and each creates favorable or 
noxious animals and plants. Everything on earth is 
either heavenly or infernal. Ahriman and his demons, 
who surround man to tempt or hurt him,75 are evil gods 
and entirely different from those of which Ormuzd’s 
host consists. The magician sacrifices to them, either 
to avert evils they threaten, or to direct their ire against 
enemies of true belief, and the impure spirits rejoice 
in bloody immolations and delight in the fumes of 
flesh burning on the altars.7° Terrible acts and words 
attended all immolations. Plutarch?7 mentions an ex- 
ample of the dark sacrifices of the Mazdeans. “In a 
mortar,’ he says, “they pound a certain herb called 
wild garlic, at the same time invoking Hades (Ahri- 
man), and the powers of darkness, then stirring this 
herb in the blood of a slaughtered wolf, they take it 
away and drop it on a spot never reached by the rays 
of the sun.’’ A necromantic performance indeed. 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 191 


We can imagine the new strength which such a 
conception of the universe must have given to magic. 
It was no longer an incongruous collection of popular 
superstitions and scientific observations. It became a 
reversed religion: its nocturnal rites were the dreadful 
liturgy of the infernal powers. There was no miracle 
the experienced magician might not expect to perform 
with the aid of the demons, providing he know how 
to master them; he would invent any atrocity in his 
desire to gain the favor of the evil divinities whom 
crime gratified and suffering pleased. Hence the num- 
ber of impious practices performed in the dark, prac- 
tices the horror of which is equaled only by their ab- 
surdity: preparing beverages that disturbed the senses 
and impaired the intellect; mixing subtle poisons ex- 
tracted from demoniac plants and corpses already in 
a state of putridity ;78 immolating children in order to 
read the future in their quivering entrails or to con- 
jure up ghosts. All the satanic refinement that a per- 
verted imagination in a state of insanity could con- 
ceive79 pleased the malicious evil spirits; the more 
odious the monstrosity, the more assured was its effi- 
cacy. These abominable practices were sternly sup- 
pressed by the Roman government. Whereas, in the case 
of an astrologer who had committed an open transgres- 
sion, the law: was satisfied with expelling him from 
Rome—whither he generally soon returned,—the magi- 
cian was put in the same class with murderers and poi- 
soners, and was subjected to the very severest punish- 
ment. He was nailed to the cross or thrown to the 
wild beasts. Not only the practice of the profession, 
but even the simple fact of possessing works of sor- 
cery made any one subject to prosecution.®° 


192 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


However, there are ways of reaching an agreement 
with the police, and in this case custom was stronger 
than law. The intermittent rigor of imperial edicts 
had no more power to destroy an inveterate super- 
stition than the Christian polemics had to cure it. It 
was a recognition of its strength when state and church 
united to fight it. Neither reached the root of the 
evil, for they did not deny the reality of the power 
wielded by the sorcerers. As long as it was admitted 
that malicious spirits constantly interfered in human 
affairs, and that there were secret means enabling the 
operator to dominate those spirits or to share in their 
power, magic was indestructible. It appealed to too 
many human passions to remain unheard. If, on the 
one hand, the desire of penetrating the mysteries of 
the future, the fear of unknown misfortunes, and 
hope, always reviving, led the anxious masses to seek 
a chimerical certainty in astrology, on the other hand, 
in the case of magic, the blinding charm of the mar- 
velous, the entreaties of love and ambition, the bitter 
desire for revenge, the fascination of crime, and the 
intoxication of bloodshed,—all the instincts that are 
not avowable and that are satisfied in the dark, took 
turns in practising their seductions. During the entire 
life of the Roman empire its existence continued, and 
the very mystery that it was compelled to hide in in- 
creased its prestige and almost gave it the authority 
of a revelation. 

A curious occurrence that took place towards the 
end of the fifth century at Beirut, in Syria, shows 
how deeply even the strongest intellects of that period 
believed in the most atrocious practices of magic. One 
night some students of the famous law-school of that 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 193 


_ city attempted to kill a slave in the circus, to aid the 
master in obtaining the favor of a woman who scorned 
him. Being reported, they had to deliver up their hid- 
den volumes, of which those of Zoroaster and of 
Hostanes were found, together with those written by 
the astrologer Manetho. The whole city was agitated, 
and searches proved that many young men preferred 
the study of the illicit science to that of Roman law. 
By order of the bishop a solemn auto-da-fé was made 
of all this literature, in the presence of the city officials 
and the clergy, and the most revolting passages were 
read in public, “in order to acquaint everybody with 
the conceited and vain promises of the demons,” as 
the pious writer of the story says.®! 

Thus the ancient traditions of magic continued to 
live in the Christian Orient after the fall of paganism. 
They even outlived the domination of the church. The 
rigorous principles of its monotheism notwithstanding, 
Islam became infected with those Persian superstitions. 
In the Occident the evil art resisted persecution and 
anathemas with the same obstinacy as in the Orient. 
It remained alive in Rome all through the fifth cen- 
tury,82 and when scientific astrology in Europe went 
down with science itself, the old Mazdean dualism 
continued to manifest itself, during the entire Middle 
Ages in the ceremonies of the black mass and the 
worshiping of Satan, until the dawn of the modern 
era. 

el DR 


Twin sisters, born of the superstitions of the learned 
Orient, magic and astrology always remained the hy- 
brid daughters of sacerdotal culture. Their existence 


194 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


was governed by two contrary principles, reason and 
faith, and they never ceased to fluctuate between these 
two poles of thought. Both were inspired by a belief 
in universal sympathy, according to which occult and 
powerful relations exist between human beings and 
dead objects, all possessing a mysterious life. The 
doctrine of sidereal influences, combined with a knowl- 
edge of the immutability of the celestial revolutions, 
caused astrology to formulate the first theory of ab- 
solute fatalism, whose decrees might be known be- 
forehand. But, besides this rigorous determinism, it 
retained its childhood faith in the divine stars, whose 
favor could be secured and malignity avoided through 
worship. In astrology the experimental method was 
reduced to the completing of prognostics based on the 
supposed character of the stellar gods. 

Magic also remained half empirical and half re- 
ligious. Like our physics, it was based on observation, 
it proclaimed the constancy of the laws of nature, and 
sought to conquer the latent energies of the material 
world in order to bring them under the dominion of 
man’s will. But at the same time it recognized, in the 
powers that it claimed to conquer, spirits or demons 
whose protection might be obtained, whose ill-will 
might be appeased, or whose savage hostility might 
be unchained by means of immolations and incanta- 
tions. 

All their aberrations notwithstanding, astrology and 
magic were not entirely fruitless. Their counterfeit 
learning has been a genuine help to the progress of 
human knowledge. Because they awakened chimerical 
hopes and fallacious ambitions in the minds of their 
adepts, researches were undertaken which undoubtedly 


ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. _ 195 


would never have been started or persisted in for the 
sake of a disinterested love of truth. The observa- 
tions, collected with untiring patience by the Oriental 
priests, caused the first physical and astronomical dis- 
coveries, and, as in the time of the scholastics, the 
occult sciences led to the exact ones. But when these 
understood the vanity of the astounding illusions on 
which astrology and magic had subsisted, they broke 
up the foundation of the arts to which they owed their 
birth, 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN 
PAGANISM. 


BOUT the time of the Severi the religion of Europe 
must have presented an aspect of surprising vari- 
ety. Although dethroned, the old native Italian, Celtic 
and Iberian divinities were still alive. Though eclipsed 
by foreign rivals, they lived on in the devotion of the 
lower classes and in the traditions of the rural districts. 
For a long time the Roman gods had been established 
in every town and had received the homage of an 
official clergy according to pontifical rites. Beside 
them, however, were installed the representatives of 
all the Asiatic pantheons, and these received the most 
fervent adoration from the masses. New powers had 
arrived from Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, and the daz- 
zling Oriental sun outshone the stars of Italy’s tem- 
perate sky. All forms of paganism were simultane- 
ously received and retained while the exclusive mono- 
theism of the Jews kept its adherents, and Christianity 
strengthened its churches and fortified its orthodoxy, 
at the same time giving birth to the baffling vagaries 
of gnosticism. A hundred different currents carried 
away hesitating and undecided minds, a hundred con- 
trasting sermons made appeals to the conscience of the 
people. 
Let us suppose that in modern Europe the faithful 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 197 


had deserted the Christian churches to worship Allah 
or Brahma, to follow the precepts of Confucius or 
Buddha, or to adopt the maxims of the Shinto; let 
us imagine a great confusion of all the races of the 
world in which Arabian mullahs, Chinese scholars, 
Japanese bonzes, Tibetan lamas and Hindu pundits 
would be preaching fatalism and predestination, an- 
cestor-worship and devotion to a deified sovereign, 
pessimism and deliverance through annihilation —a 
confusion in which all those priests would erect tem- 
ples of exotic architecture in our cities and celebrate 
their disparate rites therein. Such a dream, which 
the future may perhaps realize, would offer a pretty 
accurate picture of the religious chaos in which the 
ancient world was struggling before the reign of Con- 
stantine. 

The Oriental religions that successively gained pop- 
ularity exercised a decisive influence on the transfor- 
mation of Latin paganism. Asia Minor was the first 
to have its gods accepted by Italy. Since the end of 
the Punic wars the black stone symbolizing the Great 
Mother of Pessinus had been established on the Pala- 
tine, but only since the reign of Claudius could the 
Phrygian cult freely develop in all its splendor and 
excesses. It introduced a sensual, highly-colored and 
fanatical worship into the grave and somber religion 
of the Romans. Officially recognized, it attracted and 
took under its protection other foreign divinities from 
Anatolia and assimilated them to Cybele and Attis, 
who thereafter bore the symbols of several deities to- 
gether. Cappadocian, Jewish, Persian and even Chris- 
tian influences modified the old rites of Pessinus and 
filled them with ideas of spiritual purification and eter- 


198 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


nal redemption by the bloody baptism of the tauro- 
bolium. But the priests did not succeed in eliminating 
the basis of coarse naturism which ancient barbaric 
tradition had imposed upon them. 

Beginning with the second century before our era, 
the mysteries of Isis and Serapis spread over Italy 
with the Alexandrian culture whose religious expres- 
sion they were, and in spite of all persecution estab- 
lished themselves at Rome where Caligula gave them 
the freedom of the city. They did not bring with them 
a very advanced theological system, because Egypt 
never produced anything but a chaotic aggregate of 
disparate doctrines, nor a very elevated ethics, because 
the level of its morality—that of the Alexandrian 
Greeks—rose but slowly from a low stage. But they 
made Italy, and later the other Latin provinces, fa- 
miliar with an ancient ritual of incomparable charm 
that aroused widely different feelings with its splendid 
processions and liturgic dramas. They also gave their 
votaries positive assurance of a blissful immortality 
after death, when they would be united with Serapis 
and, participating body and soul in his divinity, would 
live in eternal contemplation of the gods. 

At a somewhat later period arrived the numerous 
and varied Baals of Syria. The great economic move- 
ment starting at the beginning of our era which pro- 
duced the colonization of the Latin world by Syrian 
slaves and merchants, not only modified the material 
civilization of Europe, but also its conceptions and 
beliefs. The Semitic cults entered into successful com- 
petition with those of Asia Minor and Egypt. They 
may not have had so stirring a liturgy, nor have been 
so thoroughly absorbed in preoccupation with a future 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 199 


life, although they taught an original eschatology, but 
they did have an infinitely higher idea of divinity. 
The Chaldean astrology, of which the Syrian priests 
were enthusiastic disciples, had furnished them with 
the elements of a scientific theology. It had led them 
to the notion of a God residing far from the earth above 
the zone of the stars, a God almighty, universal and 
eternal. Everything on earth was determined by the 
revolutions of the heavens according to infinite cycles 
of years. It had taught them at the same time the 
worship of the sun, the radiant source of earthly life 
and human intelligence. 

The learned doctrines of the Babylonians had also 
imposed themselves upon the Persian mysteries of 
Mithra which considered time identified with heaven 
as the supreme cause, and deified the stars; but they 
had superimposed themselves upon the ancient Maz- 
dean creed without destroying it. Thus the essential 
principles of the religion of Iran, the secular and often 
successful rival of Greece, penetrated into the Occident 
under cover of Chaldean wisdom. The Mithra wor- 
ship, the last and highest manifestation of ancient 
paganism, had Persian dualism for its fundamental 
dogma. The world is the scene and the stake of a 
contest between good and evil, Ormuzd and Ahriman, 
gods and demons, and from this primary conception of 
the universe flowed a strong and pure system of ethics. 
Life is a combat; soldiers under the command of 
Mithra, invincible heroes of the faith, must ceaselessly 
oppose the undertakings of the infernal powers which 
sow corruption broadcast. This imperative ethics was 
productive of energy and formed the characteristic 


200 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


feature distinguishing Mithraism from all other Ori- 
ental cults. 

Thus every one of the Levantine countries—and that 
is what we meant to show in this brief recapitulation— 
had enriched Roman paganism with new beliefs that 
were frequently destined to outlive it. What was the 
result of this confusion of heterogeneous doctrines 
whose multiplicity was extreme and whose values 
were very different? How did the barbaric ideas re- 
fine themselves and combine with each other when 
thrown into the fiery crucible of imperial syncretism? 
In other words, what shape was assumed by ancient 
idolatry, so impregnated with exotic theories during 
the fourth century, when it was finally dethroned? 
It is this point that we should like to indicate briefly 
as the conclusion to these studies. 

However, can we speak of one pagan religion? Did 
not the blending of the races result in multiplying the 
variety of disagreements? Had not the confused col- 
lision of creeds produced a division into fragments, a 
communication of churches? Had not a complacent 
syncretism engendered a multiplication of sects? The 
“Hellenes,” as Themistius told the Emperor Valens, 
had three hundred ways of conceiving and honoring 
deity, who takes pleasure in such diversity of homage. 
In paganism a cult does not die violently, but after 
long decay. A new doctrine does not necessarily dis- 
place an older one. They may co-exist for a long 
time as contrary possibilities suggested by the intel- 
lect or faith, and all opinions, all practices, seem re- 
spectable to paganism. It never has any radical or 
revolutionary transformations. Undoubtedly, the pa- 
gan beliefs of the fourth century or earlier did not 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 201 


have the consistency of a metaphysical system nor the 
rigor of canons formulated by a council. There is 
always a considerable difference between the faith of 
the masses and that of cultured minds, and this differ- 
ence was bound to be great in an aristocratic empire 
whose social classes were sharply separated. The de- 
votion of the masses was as unchanging as the depths 
of the sea; it was not stirred up nor heated by the 
upper currents.2, The peasants practised their pious 
rites over anointed stones, sacred springs and blos- 
soming trees, as in the past, and continued celebrating 
their rustic holidays during seed-time and harvest. 
They adhered with invincible tenacity to their tradi- 
tional usages. Degraded and lowered to the rank of 
superstitions, these were destined to persist for cen- 
turies under the Christian orthodoxy without exposing 
it to serious peril, and while they were no longer 
marked in the liturgic calendars they were still men- 
tioned occasionally in the collections of folk-lore. 

At the other extreme of society the philosophers de- 
lighted in veiling religion with the frail and brilliant 
tissue of their speculations. Like the emperor Julian 
they improvised bold and incongruous interpretations 
of the myth of the Great Mother, and these inter- 
pretations were received and relished by a restricted 
circle of scholars. But during the fourth century these 
vagaries of the individual imagination were nothing 
but arbitrary applications of uncontested principles. 
During that century there was much less intellectual 
anarchy than when Lucian had exposed the sects “for 
sale at public auction”; a comparative harmony arose 
among the pagans after they joined the opposition. 
One single school, that of neo-Platonism, ruled all 


202 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


minds. This school not only respected positive re- 
ligion, as ancient stoicism had done, but venerated it, 
because it saw there the expression of an old revela- 
tion handed down by past generations. It considered 
the sacred books divinely inspired—the books of Her- 
mes Trismegistus, Orpheus, the Chaldean oracles, Ho- 
mer, and especially the esoteric doctrines of the mys- 
teries—and subordinated its theories to their teach- 
ings. As there must be no contradiction between all 
the disparate traditions of different countries and dif- 
ferent periods, because all have emanated from one 
divinity, philosophy, the ancilla theologiae, attempted 
to reconcile them by the aid of allegory. And thus, 
by means of compromises between old Oriental ideas 
and Greco-Latin thought, an ensemble of beliefs slowly 
took form, the truth of which seemed to have been 
established by common consent. So when the atro- 
phied parts of the Roman religion had been removed, 
foreign elements had combined to give it a new vigor 
and in it themselves became modified. This hidden 
work of internal decomposition and reconstruction had 
unconsciously produced a religion very different from 
the one Augustus had attempted to restore. 
However, we would be tempted to believe that there 
had been no change in the Roman faith, were we to 
read certain authors that fought idolatry in those days. 
Saint Augustine, for instance, in his City of God, 
pleasantly pokes fun at the multitude of Italian gods 
that presided over the paltriest acts of life.3 But the 
useless, ridiculous deities of the old pontifical litanies” 
no longer existed outside of the books of antiquaries. 
As a matter of fact, the Christian polemicist’s author- 
ity in this instance was Varro. The defenders of the 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 203 


church sought weapons against idolatry even in Xe- 
nophanes, the first philosopher to oppose Greek poly- 
theism. It has frequently been shown that apologists 
find it difficult to follow the progress of the doctrines 
which they oppose, and often their blows fall upon 
dead men. Moreover, it is a fault common to all 
scholars, to all imbued with book learning, that they 
are better acquainted with the opinions of ancient 
authors than with the sentiments of their contempo- 
raries, and that they prefer to live in the past rather 
than in the world surrounding them. It was easier to 
reproduce the objections of the Epicureans and the 
skeptics against abolished beliefs, than to study the 
defects of an active organism with a view to criticizing 
it. In those times the merely formal culture of the 
schools caused many of the best minds to lose their 
sense of reality. 

The Christian polemics therefore frequently give us 
an inadequate idea of paganism in its decline. When 
they complacently insisted upon the immorality of the 
sacred legends they ignored the fact that the gods and 
heroes of mythology had no longer any but a purely 
literary existence.4 The writers of that period, like 
those of the Renaissance, regarded the fictions of 
mythology as details necessary to poetical composi- 
tion. They were ornaments of style, rhetorical devices, 
but not the expression of a sincere faith. Those old 
myths had fallen to the lowest degree of disrepute 
in the theater. The actors of mimes ridiculing Jupiter’s 
gallant adventures did not believe in their reality any 
more than the author of Faust believed in the compact 
with Mephistopheles. 

So we must not be deceived by the oratorical effects 


204 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of a rhetorician like Arnobius or by the Ciceronian 
periods of a Lactantius. In order to ascertain the 
real status of the beliefs we must refer to Christian 
authors who were men of letters less than they were 
men of action, who lived the life of the people and 
breathed the air of the streets, and who spoke from 
experience rather than from the treatises of myth- 
mongers. They were high functionaries like Pruden- 
tius ;> like the man to whom the name ‘‘Ambrosiaster’’® 
has been given since the time of Erasmus; like the 
converted pagan Firmicus Maternus,? who had writ- 
ten a treatise on astrology before opposing “The Error 
of the Profane Religions” ; like certain priests brought 
into contact with the last adherents of idolatry through 
their pastoral duties, as for instance the author of the 
homilies ascribed to St. Maximus of Turin ;° finally like 
the writers of anonymous pamphlets, works prepared 
for the particular occasion and breathing the ardor 
of all the passions of the movement.® If this inquiry 
is based on the obscure indications in regard to their 
religious convictions left by members of the Roman 
aristocracy who remained true to the faith of their 
ancestors, like Macrobius or Symmachus; if it is par- 
ticularly guided by the exceptionally numerous in- 
scriptions that seem to be the public expression of the 
last will of expiring paganism, we shall be able to gain 
a sufficiently precise idea of the condition of the 
Roman religion at the time of its extinction. 

One fact becomes immediately clear from an ex- 
amination of those documents. The old national re- 
ligion of Rome was dead.t° The great dignitaries 
still adorned themselves with the titles of augur and 
quindecimvir, or of consul and tribune, but those ar- 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 205 


chaic prelacies were as devoid of all real influence 
upon religion as the republican magistracies were 
powerless in the state. Their fall had been made 
complete on the day when Aurelian established the 
pontiffs of the Invincible Sun, the protector of his 
empire, beside and above the ancient high priests. 
The only cults still alive were those of the Orient, 
and against them were directed the efforts of the 
Christian polemics, who grew more and more bitter 
in speaking of them. The barbarian gods had taken 
the place of the defunct immortals in the devotion of 
the pagans. They alone still had empire over the soul. 

With all the other “profane religions,’ Firmicus 
Maternus fought those of the four Oriental nations. 
He connected them with the four elements. The 
Egyptians were the worshipers of water— the water 
of the Nile fertilizing their country ; the Phrygians of 
the earth, which was to them the Great Mother of 
everything ; the Syrians and Carthaginians of the air, 
which they adored under the name of celestial Juno ;!! 
the Persians of fire, to which they attributed pre- 
eminence over the other three principles. This system 
certainly was borrowed from the pagan theologians. 
In the common peril threatening them, those cults, 
formerly rivals, had become reconciled and regarded 
themselves as divisions and, so to speak, congregations, 
of the same church. Each one of them was especially 
consecrated to one of the elements which in combina- 
tion form the universe. Their union constituted the 
pantheistic religion of the deified world. 

All the Oriental religions assumed the form of mys- 
teries.'? Their dignitaries were at the same time pon- 
tiffs of the Invincible Sun, fathers of Mithra, cele- 


206 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


brants of the taurobolium of the Great Mother, proph- 
ets of Isis; in short, they had all titles imaginable. 
In their initiation they received the revelation of an 
esoteric doctrine strengthened by their fervor.t3 What 
was the theology they learned? Here also a certain 
dogmatic homogeneity has established itself. 

All writers agree with Firmicus that the pagans 
worshiped the elementa.14 Under this term were in- 
cluded not only the four simple substances which by 
their opposition and blending caused all phenomena 
of the visible world,'5 but also the stars and in general 
the elements of all celestial and earthly bodies.'® 

We therefore may in a certain sense speak of the 
return of paganism to nature worship; but must this 
transformation be regarded as a retrogression toward 
a barbarous past, as a relapse to the level of primitive 
animism? If so, we should be deceived by appearances. 
Religions do not fall back into infancy as they grow 
old. The pagans of the fourth century no longer 
naively considered their gods as capricious genii, as 
the disordered powers of a confused natural philos- 
ophy ; they conceived them as cosmic energies whose 
providential action was regulated in a harmonious sys- 
tem. Faith was no longer instinctive and impulsive, 
for erudition and reflection had reconstructed the en- 
tire theology. In a certain sense it might be said that 
theology had passed from the fictitious to the meta- 
physical state, according to the formula of Comte. It 
was intimately connected with the knowledge of the 
day, which was cherished by its last votaries with love | 
and pride, as faithful heirs of the ancient wisdom of 
the Orient and Greece.'7 In many instances it was 
nothing but a religious form of the cosmology of the 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 20/7 


period. This constituted both its strength and its 
weakness. The rigorous principles of astrology deter- 
mined its conception of heaven and earth. 

The universe was an organism animated by a God, 
unique, eternal and almighty. Sometimes this God 
was identified with the destiny that ruled all things, 
with infinite time that regulated all visible phenomena, 
and he was worshiped in each subdivision of that 
endless duration, especially in the months and the 
seasons.'® Sometimes, however, he was compared with 
a king; he was thought of as a sovereign governing 
an empire, and the various gods then were the princes 
and dignitaries interceding with the rulers on behalf 
of his subjects whom they led in some manner into 
his presence. This heavenly court had its messengers 
or “angels” conveying to men the will of the master 
and reporting again the vows and petitions of his 
subjects. It was an aristocratic monarchy in heaven 
as on earth.19 A more philosophic conception made 
the divinity an infinite power impregnating all nature 
with its overflowing forces. “There is only one God, 
sole and supreme,” wrote Maximus of Madaura about 
390, “without beginning or parentage, whose energies, 
diffused through the world, we invoke under various 
names, because we are ignorant of his real name. By 
successively addressing our supplications to his differ- 
ent members we intend to honor him in his entirety. 
Through the mediation of the subordinate gods the 
common father both of themselves and of all men is 
honored in a thousand different ways by mortals who 
are thus in accord in spite of their discord.”2° 

However, this ineffable God, who comprehensively 
embraces everything, manifests himself especially in 


208 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the resplendent brightness of the ethereal sky.2? He 
reveals his power in water and in fire, in the earth, 
the sea and the blowing of the winds; but his purest, 
most radiant and most active epiphany is in the stars 
whose revolutions determine every event and all our 
actions. Above all he manifests himself in the sun, 
the motive power of the celestial spheres, the inexhaus- 
tible seat of light and life, the creator of all intelligence 
on earth. Certain philosophers like the senator Prae- 
textatus, one of the dramatis personae of Macrobius, 
confounded all the ancient divinities of paganism with 
the sun in a thorough-going syncretism.?? 

Just as a superficial observation might lead to the 
belief that the theology of the last pagans had reverted 
to its origin, so at first sight the transformation of the 
ritual might appear like a return to savagery. With 
the adoption of the Oriental mysteries barbarous, cruel 
and obscene practices were undoubtedly spread, as for 
instance the masquerading in the guise of animals in 
the Mithraic initiations, the bloody dances of the galli 
of the Great Mother and the mutilations of the Syrian 
priests. Nature worship was originally as “amoral” 
as nature itself. But an ethereal spiritualism ideally 
transfigured the coarseness of those primitive customs. 
Just as the doctrine had become completely impreg- 
nated with philosophy and erudition, so the liturgy 
had become saturated with ethical ideas. 

_ The taurobolium, a disgusting shower-bath of luke- 
warm blood, had become a means of obtaining a 
new and eternal life; the ritualistic ablutions were 
no longer external and material acts, but were sup- 
posed to cleanse the soul of its impurities and to re- 
store its original innocence; the sacred repasts im- 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 209 


parted an intimate virtue to the soul and furnished 
sustenance to the spiritual life. While efforts were 
made to maintain the continuity of tradition, its con- 
tent had slowly been transformed. The most shocking 
and licentious fables were metamorphosed into edify- 
ing narratives by convenient and subtle interpretations 
which were a joy to the learned mythographers. Pa- 
ganism had become a school of morality, the priest a 
doctor and director of the conscience.?3 

The purity and holiness imparted by the practice of 
sacred ceremonies were the indispensable condition for 
obtaining eternal life.24 The mysteries promised a 
blessed immortality to their initiates, and claimed to 
reveal to them infallible means of effecting their sal- 
vation. According to a generally accepted symbol, 
the spirit animating man was a spark, detached from 
the fires shining in the ether ; it partook of their divin- 
ity and so, it was believed, had descended to the earth 
to undergo a trial. It could literally be said that 


“Man is a fallen god who still remembers heaven.” 


After having left their corporeal prisons, the pious 
souls reascended towards the celestial regions of the 
divine stars, to live forever in endless brightness be- 
yond the starry spheres.?5 

But at the other extremity of the world, facing this 
luminous realm, extended the somber kingdom of evil 
spirits. They were irreconcilable adversaries of the 
gods and men of good will, and constantly left the 
infernal regions to roam about the earth and scatter 
evil. With the aid of the celestial spirits, the faithful 
had to struggle forever against their designs and seek 
to avert their anger by means of bloody sacrifices. 


210 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


But, with the help of occult and terrible processes, the 
magician could subject them to his power and compel 
them to serve his purposes. This demonology, the 
monstrous offspring of Persian dualism, favored the 
rise of every superstition.?® 

However, the reign of the evil powers was not to 
last forever. According to common opinion the uni- 
verse would be destroyed by fire?” after the times had 
been fulfilled. All the wicked would perish, but the 
just would be revived and establish the reign of uni- 
versal happiness in the regenerated world.?8 

The foregoing is a rapid sketch of the theology of 
paganism after three centuries of Oriental influence. 
From coarse fetichism and savage superstitions the 
learned priests of the Asiatic cults had gradually pro- 
duced a complete system of metaphysics and escha- 
tology, as the Brahmins built up the spiritualistic mo- 
nism of the Vedanta beside the monstrous idolatry of 
Hinduism, or, to confine our comparisons to the Latin 
world, as the jurists drew from the traditional cus- 
toms of primitive tribes the abstract principles of a 
legal system that governs the most cultivated societies. 
This religion was no longer like that of ancient Rome, 
a mere collection of propitiatory and expiatory rites 
performed by the citizen for the good of the state; it 
now pretended to offer to all men a world-conception 
which gave rise to a rule of conduct and placed the 
end of existence in the future life. It was more unlike 
the worship that Augustus had attempted to restore 
than the Christianity that fought it. The two opposed 
creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral 
sphere,?9 and one could actually pass from one to the 
other without shock or interruption. Sometimes when 


THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM. 211 


reading the long works of the last Latin writers, like 
Ammianus Marcellinus or Boéthius, or the panegyrics 
of the official orators,3° scholars could well ask whether 
their authors were pagan or Christian. In the time 
of Symmachus and Praetextatus, the members of the 
Roman aristocracy who had remained faithful to the 
gods of their ancestors did not have a mentality or 
morality very different from that of adherents of the 
new faith who sat with them in the senate. The re- 
ligious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly 
overcome the whole social organism and had prepared 
all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church. 





NOTES. 


PREFACE, 


1. We are indebted for more than one useful suggestion to 
our colleagues Messrs. Charles Michel and Joseph Bidez, who 
were kind enough to read the proofs of the French edition. 


2. An outline of the present state of the subject will be found 
in a recent volume by Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, 1906, 
pp. 1606 ff., whose views are sharply opposed to the negative 
conclusions formulated, with certain reservations, by Harnack, 
Ausbreittung des Christentums, II, pp. 274 ff. Among the latest 
studies intended for the general reader that have appeared on 
this subject, may be mentioned in Germany those of Geffcken 
(Aus der Werdezeit des Christentums, Leipsic, 1904, pp. 114 ff.), 
and in England those of Cheyne (Bible Problems, 1904), who 
expresses his opinion in these terms: “The Christian religion 
is a synthesis, and only those who have dim eyes can assert 
that the intellectual empires of Babylonia and Persia have 
fallen.”—Very useful is the new book of Clemen, Religions- 
geschichtliche Erklarung des Neuen Testaments, Giessen, 1900. 


3. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 342, n. 4; see the new texts com- 
mented on by Usener, Rhein. Museum, LX, 1905, pp. 466 ff.; 
489 ff., and my paper “Natalis Invicti,” C. R. Acad. des inscr., 
IQII. 

4. See page 70. Compare also Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 341. 
The imitation of the church is plain in the pagan reform at- 
tempted by the emperor Julian. 


5. See Harnack, Militia Christi, 1905. 


6. I have collected a number of texts on the religious “mili- 
tias’ in Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 317, n. 1. Others could cer- 
tainly be discovered: Apuleius, Metam., XI, 14: E cohorte re- 


214 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ligionis unus (in connection with a mystic of Isis) ;—Vettius 
Valens (V, 2, p. 220, 27, Kroll ed.) : Zrpariwrae rHs eiwappevys ; 
(VII, 3, p. 271, 28) ZvorparevecOat Trois Katpois yevvaiws, See 
Minucius Felix, 36, §7: Quod patimur non est poena, militia 
est—We might also mention the commonplace term militia 
Veneris, which was popular with the Augustan poets (Proper- 
tius, IV, 1, 137; see I, 6, 30; Horace, Od., III, 26, and espe- 
cially the parallel developed by Ovid, Amor., I, 9, 1 ff., and 
Ars amat., III, 233 ff).—Socrates, in Plato’s Apologia (p. 28 E), 
incidentally likens the philosophic mission imposed on him by 
the divinity to the campaigns he waged under the orders of 
the archons, but the comparison of God with a “strategus” 
was developed especially by the Stoics; see Capelle, “Schrift 
von der Welt,” Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. Altert., XV, 1905, 
p. 558, n. 6, and Seneca, Epist., 107, 9: Optimum est Deum sine 
murmuratione comitari, malus miles est qui imperatorem ge- 
mens sequitur.—See now also Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Mys- 
terienreligion, 1910, p. 66. 

7. See Rev. des études grecques, XIV, 1901, pp. 43 ff. 

8. This has been clearly shown by Wendland in connection 
with the idea of the owrnpla, Zeitschrift fiir neutest. Wiss., V, 
1904, pp. 355 ff. More recently he has thrown light on the 
general influence of Hellenistic civilization on Christianity (Die 
hellenistisch-rémische Kultur in thren Beziehungen zum Juden- 
tum und Christentum, Tiibingen, 1908). <A first attempt to 
determine the character of Hellenistic mysteries is to be found 
in Reitzenstein’s Hellenistische Mysterienreligion, 1910. 


I. ROME AND THE ORIENT. 

1. Renan, L’Antéchrist, p. 130. 

2. M. Krumbacher (Byzant. Zeitschr., XVI, 1907, p. 710) 
notes, in connection with the idea that I am defending here: 
“In ahnlicher Weise war dieser Gedanke (der Ueberfliigelung 
des Abendlandes durch die auf allen Kulturgebieten vor- 
dringende Regsamkeit der Orientalen) kurz vorher in meiner 
Skizze der byzantinischen Literatur (Kultur der Gegenwart, 
I, 8 [1907], pp. 246-253) auseinandergelegt worden; es ist ein 
erfreulicher und bei dem Wirrsal widerstreitender Doctrinen 
trostlicher Beweis fiir den Fortschritt der Erkenntniss, dass 


NOTES—ROME AND THE ORIENT. 21S 


zwei von ganz verschiedenen Richtungen ausgehende Diener 
der Wissenschaft sich in so wichtigen allgemeinen Fragen so 
nahe kommen.” 


3. Cf. Kornemann, “Aegyptische Einfliisse im rdmischen 
Kaiserreich” (Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. Altertum, I1, 1808, 
p. 118 ff.) and Otto Hirschfeld, Die kaiserl. Verwaltungsbe- 
amten, 2d. ed., p. 469. 

4. See Cicero’s statement regarding the ancient Roman do- 
minion (De o#f., II, 8): “Illud patrocinium orbis terrae verius 
quam imperium poterat nominari.” 


5. O. Hirschfeld, op. cit., pp. 53, 91, 93, etc.; cf. Mitteis, 
Reichsrecht und Volksrecht, p. 9, n. 2, etc. Thus have various 
institutions been transmitted from the ancient Persians to the 
Romans; see Ch. VI, n. 5. 


6. Rostovtzew, “Der Ursprung des Kolonats” (Beitrage sur 
alten Gesch., I, 1901, p. 295); Haussoullier, Histoire de Milet 
et du Didymeion, 1902, p. 106. 

7. Mitteis, Reichsrecht und Volksrecht in den ostlichen Pro- 
vinsen, 1891, pp. 8 ff. 


8. Mommsen, Gesammelte Schriften, II, 1905, p. 366: “Seit 
Diocletian tibernimmt der GOstliche Reichsteil, die partes Ori- 
entis, auf allen Gebieten die Fuhrung. Dieser spate Sieg des 
Hellenismus tiber die Lateiner ist vielleicht nirgends auffal- 
liger als auf dem Gebiet der juristischen Schriftstellerei.” 


9. De Vogiie and Duthoit, L’Architecture civile et religieuse 
de la Syrie centrale, Paris, 1866-1877. 


10. This result is especially due to the researches of M. 
Strzygowski, but we cannot enter here into the controversies 
aroused by his publications: Orient oder Rom, 1911; Hellas 
in des Orients Umarmung, Munich, 1902, and especially Klein- 
asien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte, Leipsic, 1903; [cf. 
the reports of Ch. Diehl, Journal des Savants, 1904, pp. 236 ff. 
= Etudes byzantines, 1905, pp. 336 ff.; Gabriel Millet, Revue 
archéolog., 1905, I, pp. 93 ff.; Marcel Laurent, Revue de I’Instr. 
publ. en Belgique, 1905, pp. 145 ff.]; Mschatta, 1904, [cf. infra, 
Ch. VI, n. 12]. —M. Bréhier, “Orient ou Byzance?” (Rev. ar- 
chéol., 1907, II, pp. 396ff.), gives a substantial summary of 
the question—In his last volume, Amida (1910), M. Strzy- 


216 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


gowski tries to find the source of medieval art in Mesopotamia. 
For this controversy see Diehl’s Manuel d'art byzantin, 1910. 


tt. See also Pliny, Epist. Traian., 40: “Architecti tibi [in 
Bithynia] deesse non possunt....cum ex Graecia etiam ad nos 
[at Rome] venire soliti sint.”—Among the names of architects 
mentioned in Latin inscriptions there are a great many reveal- 
ing Greek or Oriental origin (see Ruggiero, Dizion. epigr., 
s. v. “Architectus”), in spite of the consideration which their 
eminently useful profession always enjoyed at Rome. 


12. The question of the artistic and industrial influences 
exercised by the Orient over Gaul during the Roman period, 
has been broached frequently—among others by Courajod (Le- 
cons du Louvre, I, 1899, pp. 115, 327 ff.) —but it has never been 
seriously studied in its entirety. Michaélis has recently de- 
voted a suggestive article to this subject in connection with a 
statue from the museum of Metz executed in the style of the 
school of Pergamum (Jahrb. der Gesellsch. fiir lothring. Ge- 
schichte, XVII, 1905, pp. 203 ff.). By the influence of Mar- 
seilles in Gaul, and the ancient connection of that city with 
the towns of Hellenic Asia, he explains the great difference 
between the works of sculpture discovered along the upper 
Rhine, which had been civilized by the Italian legions, and 
those unearthed on the other side of the Vosges. This is a 
very important discovery rich in results. We believe, how- 
ever, that Michaélis ascribes too much importance to the 
early Marseilles traders traveling along the old “tin road” 
towards Brittany and the “amber road” towards Germany. 
The Asiatic merchants and artisans did not set out from one 
point only. There were many emigrants all over the valley 
of the Rhone. Lyons was a half-Hellenized city, and the 
relations of Arles with Syria, of Nimes with Egypt, etc., are 
well known. We shall speak of them in connection with the 
religions of those countries. 


13. Even in the bosom of the church the Latin Occident of 
the fourth century was still subordinate to the Greek Orient, 
which imposed its doctrinal problems upon it (Harnack, Mis- 
sion und Ausbreitung, II, p. 283, n. 1). 


14. The sacred formulas have been collected by Alb. Diete- 
rich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, pp. 212 ff. He adds Aolny aot ’’Ocupis 


NOTES—ROME AND THE ORIENT. 217 


7d puxpov vdwp, Archiv fiir Religionswiss., VIII, 1905, p. 504, n. 
1. [Cf. infra, ch. IV, n. 90.] Among the hymns of greatest 
importance for the Oriental cults we must cite those in honor 
of Isis, discovered in the island of Andros (Kaibel, Epigr., 
4028) and elsewhere (see ch. IV, n. 6). Fragments of hymns 
in honor of Attis have been preserved by Hippolytus (Philo- 
soph., V, 9. pp. 168 ff.) The so-called orphic hymns (Abel, 
Orphica, 1883), which date back to a rather remote period, do 
not seem to contain many Oriental elements (see Maas, Or- 
bheus, 1895, pp. 173 ff.), but this does not apply to the gnostic 
hymns of which we possess very instructive fragments.—Cf. 
Mon. myst. de Mithra, I, p. 313, n. 1. 


15. Regarding the imitations of the stage, see Adami, De 
poetis scen. Graecis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus, 190. 
Wunsch has shown the liturgic character of a prayer to As- 
klepios, inserted by Herondas into his mimiambi (Archiv fiir 
Religionswiss., VII, 1904, pp. 95 ff.) Dieterich believes he 
has found an extensive extract from the Mithraic liturgy in a 
magic papyrus of Paris (see infra, ch. VI, Bibliography). But 
all these discoveries amount to very little if we think of the 
enormous number of liturgic texts that have been lost, and 
even in the case of ancient Greece we know little regarding 
this sacred literature. See Ausfeld, De Graecorum precatio- 
nibus, Leipsic, 1903; Ziegler, De precationum apud Graecos 
formis quaestiones selectae, Breslau, 1905; H. Schmidt, Ve- 
teres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de precibus, Giessen, 
1907. 


16. For instance, the hymn “which the magi sung” about 
the steeds of the supreme god; its contents are given by Dion 
Chrysostom, Orat., XXXVI, 39 (see Mon. myst. Mithra, I. p. 
298; II, p. 60). 


17. | have in mind the hymns of Cleanthes (Von Arnim, 
Stoic. fragm., I, Nos. 527, 537), also Demetrius’s act of re- 
nunciation in Seneca, De Provid., V, 5, which bears a sur- 
prising resemblance to one of the most famous Christian pray- 
ers, the Suscipe of Saint Ignatius which concludes the book 
of Spiritual Exercises (Delehaye, Les légendes hagiogra- 
phiques, 1905, p. 170, n. 1).—In this connection we ought to 
mention the prayer translated in the Asclepius, the Greek text 


218 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of which has recently been found on a papyrus (Reitzenstein, 
Archiv fiir Religionswiss., VII, 1904, p. 395). On pagan pray- 
ers introduced into the Christian liturgy see Reitzenstein and 
Wendland, Nachrichten Ges. Wiss., Gottingen, 1910, pp. 325 ff. 


18. This point has been studied more in detail in our Monu- 
ments relatifs aux mystéres de Mithra, from which we have 
taken parts of the following observations (1, pp. 21 ff.). 


19. Lucian’s authorship of the treatise Tepi ris Zuplys deov 
has been questioned but wrongly; see Maurice Croiset, Essai 
sur Lucien, 1882, pp. 63, 204. I am glad to be able to cite the 
high authority of Noldeke in favor of its authenticity. Nol- 
deke writes me on this subject: “Ich habe jeden Zweifel daran 
schon lange aufgegeben....Ich habe lange den Plan gehabt, 
einen Commentar zu diesem immerhin recht lehrreichen Stiick 
zu schreiben and viel Material dazu gesammelt. Aus der An- 
nahme der Echtheit dieser Schrift ergiebt sich mir, dass auch 
das Hept aorpovopuias echt ist. 

20. Cf. Frisch, De compositione libri Plutarchet qui inscri- 
bitur, Ilept ’Ioidos, Leipsic, 1906, and the observations of Neu- 
stadt, Berl. Philol. Wochenschr., 1907, p. 1117.—One of Plu- 
tarch’s sources is the "Iovdaixa by Apion.—See also Scott Mon- 
crieft, Journ. of Hell. Studies, XIX, 1900, p. 81. 


21. See ch. VII, pp. 202-203. 


22. Cf. Mon myst. Mithra, I, p. 75, p. 219—For Egypt see 
Georges Foucart, “L’art et la religion dans l’ancienne Egypte,” 
Revue des idées, Nov. 15, 1908, 

23. The narrative and symbolic sculpture of the Oriental 
cults was a preparation for that of the Middle Ages, and many 
remarks in Male’s beautiful book L’Art du XIII® siécle en 
France, can be applied to the art of dying paganism. 


Il. WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS, SPREAD, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boissier, La religion romaine d’Auguste aux 
Antonins, especially Bk. II, ch. I1—Jean Réville, La religion 
a Rome sous les Sévéres, Paris, 1886.—Wissowa, Religion und 
Cultus der Romer, Munich, 1902, pp. 71 ff., 280 ff—Samuel 
Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 
1905.—Bigg, The Church’s Task Under the Roman Empire, 


NOTES—WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD, 219 


Oxford, 1905.—Cf. also Gruppe, Griech. Mythologie und Reli- 
gionsgeschichte, 1906, pp. 1519 ff.—Wendland, Die hellenistisch- 
romische Kultur in ihren Besiehungen zum Judentum und sum 
Christentum, Tubingen, 1907, pp. 54f£—-The monographs wil! 
be cited in connection with the different cults which they treat. 

1. Mélanges Fredericq, Brussels, 1904, pp. 63 ff. (Pourquoz 
le latin fut la seule langue liturgique de l'Occident); cf. the 
observations of Lejay, Rev. d’hist. ct litt. relig., XI, 1906, p. 
370. 

2. Holl, Volkssprache in Kleinasien (Hermes, 1908, pp, 
250 ff.). 

3. The volume of Hahn, Rom und Romanismus im grie- 
chisch-rémischen Osten bis auf die Zeit Hadrians (Leipsic, 
1906) discusses a period for the most part prior to the one 
that interests us. On the period following we have nothing 
but a provisional sketch by the same author, Romanismus und 
FTellenismus bis auf die Zeit Justinians (Philologus, Suppl. X), 
1907. 

4. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 44: “Nationes in famiiliis habe- 
mus quibus diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt.” 

5. S. Reinach, Epona (Extr. Rev. archéol.). 1895. 


6. The theory of the degeneration of races has been set 
forth in particular by Stewart Chamberlain, Die Grundlagen 
des XIX. Jahrhunderts, 3d. ed., Munich, tgo1, pp. 206 ff.—The 
idea of selection by retrogression, of the Ausrottung der Bes- 
ten, has been defended, as is well known, by Seeck in his 
Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt, which outlines 
the religious consequence (II, p. 344). His system is developed 
in the third volume which appeared in 19090. 

7, Apuleius, Metam., XI, 14 ff. See Preface. Manilius said 
of the divine stars (IV, 910; cf. IT, 125) ; 

“Tpse vocat nostros animos ad sidera mundus.”’ 


8. Hepding, Attis, pp. 178 ff., 187. 

9g. The intimate connection between the juridical and re- 
ligious ideas of the Romans has left numerous traces even in 
their language. One of the most curious is the double mean- 
ing of the term supplicium, which stands at the same time for 
a supplication addressed to the gods and a punishment de- 


220 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


manded by custom, and later by law. In regard to the devel- 

opment of this twofold meaning, see the recent note by Richard 

Heinze, Archiv fiir lateinische Lexicographie, XV, pp. 90 ff. 

Sematology is often synonymous with the study of customs. 
10. Réville, op. cit., p. 144. 


11. On ecstasy in the mysteries in general, cf. Rohde, Psyche, 
2d ed., pp. 315-319; in the Oriental religions cf. De Jong, 
De Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste, 1900, p. 100; De 
Jong, Das antike Mysterienwesen, Leyden, 1909. Mon, myst. 
Mithra, I, p. 323. 


12. Firmicus Maternus mentioned this in De errore prof. 
relig., c. 8. 


13. For Babylonia, cf. Strab., XVI, 1, §6, and infra, ch. V, 
n. 51; for Egypt, id., XVII, 21, § 46. From the very interesting 
account Otto has written of the science of the Egyptian priests 
during the Hellenistic period (Priester und Tempel, II, pp. 
211 ff.; 234), it appears that it remained quite worthy of 
consideration although progress had ceased. 


14. Strabo, loc. cit... ’Avatibéact 6& 76 ‘Epuh wacay tHv TovabrHiy 
cogiav; Pliny, Hist. nat., VI, 26, § 121: “(Belus) inventor fuit 
sideralis scientiae’; cf. Solinus, 56, §3; Achilles, Jsag., I 
(Maass, Comm. in Arat., p. 27): Body riv ebpecw davadertes, 
Let us remember that Hammurabi’s code was represented as 
the work of Marduk.—In a general way, the gods are the 
authors of all inventions useful to humanity; cf. Reitzenstein, 
Poimandres, 1904, p. 123; Deissmann, Licht von Osten, 91 ff. 
Likewise in the Occident: CJL, VII, 759 = Biicheler, Carm. 
epigr., 24: “(Dea Syria) ex quis muneribus nosse contigit 
deos,” etc., cf. Plut., Crass., 17.— “Religion im Sinne des 
Orients ist die Erklarung alles dessen was ist, also eine Welt- 
auffassung” (Winckler, Himmelsbild der Babylonier, 1903, p. 9). 


15. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 312.— Manicheism likewise 
brought a complete cosmological system from Babylonia. 
Saint Augustine criticizes the book of that sect for containing 
long dissertations and absurd stories about matters that have 
nothing at all to do with salvation; see my Recherches sur le 
manichéisme, 1908, p. 53. . 

16. Cf. Porphyry, Epist. Aneb., 11; Jambl., De myst., II, 11. 


NOTES—WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 221 


17. This upright character of the Roman religion has been 
thoroughly expounded by G. Boissier (op. cit., I, 30 ff, 373 ff). 
See also the remarks by Bailey, Religion of Ancient Rome, 
London, 1907, pp. 103 ff. 


18. Varro in Augustine De civ. Dei, IV, 27; VI,5; cf. Varro, 
Antig. rerum divin., ed. Aghad, pp. 145 ff. The same distinc- 
tion between the religion of the poets, of the legislators and 
of the philosophers has been made by Plutarch, Amatorius, 
18, p. 763C. The author of this division is Posidonius of 
Apamea. See Diels, Doxrographi Graeci, p. 295, 10, and Wend- 
land, Archiv fiir Gesch. der Philos., 1, pp. 200 ff. 


19. Luterbacher, Der Prodigienglaube der Romer, Burgdorf, 
1904. 

20. Juvenal, II, 149; cf. Diodorus, I, 93, §3. Cf. Plutarch 
also in speaking of future punishment (Non posse suaviter vivt, 
c. 26, p. 1104 C-E: Quo modo poetas aud., c. 2, p.17 C-E; Con- 
sol. ad Apollon., c. 10, p. 106F), “nous laisse entendre que 
pour la plupart de ses contemporains ce sont la des contes de 
nourrice qui ne peuvent effrayer que des enfants” (Decharme, 
Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs, 1904, p. 442). 

21. Aug., Civ. Det, VI, 2; Varro, Antiqu., ed. Aghad, 141; 
“Se timere ne (dii) pereant non incursu hostili sed civium 
neglegentia.” 

22. I have developed this point in my Mon. myst. Mithra, I, 
pp. 279 ff. 

23. In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in 
any other religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially 
those of Eleusis, taught similar doctrines and satisfied the re- 
ligious needs. . . 


24. The development of the “ritual of purification” has been 
broadly expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in The Evolution 
of Religion, 1905, pp. 88 ff. 


25. We shall mention this subject again when speaking of 
the taurobolium in ch. III, pp. 67 ff. 


26. We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed 
by that purifying rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these 
forms remained quite primitive, and the idea that inspired 
them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521f.) pictures the 


222 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


worshiper of the Magna Mater divesting himself of his beauti- 
ful garments and giving them to the archigallus to wipe out 
all the misdeeds of the year (ut totum semel expiet annum). 
The idea of a mechanical transfer of the pollution by relin- 
quishing the clothes is frequent among savages; see Farnell, 
op. cit., p. 117; also Frazer, Golden Bough, I’, p. 60. 

27. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, pp. 157 ff.; Hepding, 
Attis, pp. 194 ff.—Cf. Frazer, Golden Bough, III’ pp. 424 ff 

28. Cf. Augustine Civit. Det, X, 28: “Confiteris tamen (sc. 
Porphyrius) etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus 
et sine teletis quibus frustra discendis elaborasti, posse con- 
tinentiae virtute purgari,” cf. ibid., X, 23 and infra, ch. VIII, 
Nn. 24. 

29. Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great 
interest. Porphyry’s treatise De abstinentia offers a fuller 
treatment than is often possible in this kind of studies.—See 
Farnell, op. cit., pp. 154 ff. 


30. On éfouorsynors in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ram- 
say, Cities, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, La province romaine 
d’ Asie, 1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, “Paroemiographica,” 
Sitzungsb. Bayr. Akad., 1910, p. III. 


31. Menander in Porphyry De abstin., II, 15; cf. Plutarch, 
De Superstit., 7, p. 168D.; Tertullian, De Paenit., c. 9—Re- 
garding the sacred fishes of Atargatis, see infra, ch. V.—In 
Apuleius (Met. VIII, 28) the gallus of the goddess loudly 
accuses himself of his crime and punishes himself by flagel- 
lation. See Gruppe, Griech. Myth., p. 1545; Farnell, Evol. of 
Religion, p. 55.—As a matter of fact, the confession of sin is 
an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf. 
Lagrange, Religions sémit., p. 225 ff. Schrank, Babylonische 
Siihnriten, 1909, p. 46. 


32. Juvenal, VI, 523 ff., 537 ff.; cf. Seneca, Vit. beait., 
XXVI, 8. 


33. On liturgic feasts in the religion of Cybele: infra, ch. 
II; in the mysteries of Mithra: Mon. myst. Mithra, I. p. 3203 
in the Syrian cults: ch. V, n. 37. See in general, Hepding, 
Attis, pp. 185 ff. 


34. We know according to Herbert Spencer that the pro- 


NOTES—ASLA MINOR. 93 


gressive differentiation of the ecclestiastic and lay functions is 
one of the characteristics of religious evolution. In this re- 
gard Rome was far behind the Orient. 


35. An essential result of the researches of Otto (op. cit.) 
is the proof of the opposition existing in Egypt since the 
Ptolemies between the hierarchic organization of the Egyptian 
clergy and the almost anarchical autonomy of the Greek 
priests. See our remarks on the clergy of Isis and the Galli. 
On the Mithraic hierarchy see our Mysteries of Mithra, Chi- 
cago, 1903, p. 165. 

36. The development of the conceptions of “salvation” and 
“saviour” after the Hellenistic period has been studied by 
Wendland, Z2wryp (Zeitschrift fiir neutestam. Wissensch., V, 
1904, pp. 335 ff.). See also Lietzmann, Der Weltheiland, Bonn, 
1909. W. Otto, “Augustus Zwrnp,” Hermes, XLV, 1910, pp. 
448 ff. 


37. Later on we shall expound the two principal doctrines, 
that of the Egyptian religions (identification with Osiris, god 
of the dead), and that of the Syrian and Persian religions 
(ascension into heaven). 


38. At that time man’s fate after death was the one great 
interest. An interesting example of the power of this idea is 
furnished by Arnobius. He became converted to Christianity 
because, according to his peculiar psychology, he feared that 
his soul might die, and believed that Christ alone could protect 
him against final annihilation (cf. Bardenhewer, Gesch. der 
altkirchlichen Literatur, II, 1903, p. 470. 

39. Lucretius had expressed this conviction (II, 1170 ff.). 
It spread to the end of the empire as disasters multiplied; 
cf. Rev. de philologie, 1897, p. 152. 


40. Boissier, Rel. rom., 1°, p. 359; Friedlander, Sittengesch., 
I°, pp. 500 ff. 


III. ASIA MINOR. 


BIBLioGRAPHY: Jean Réville, La religion a Rome sous les 
Sévéres, pp. 62 ff—Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythol, 
s.v. “Meter,’ II, 2932.—Wissowa, Religion und Cultus der 
Rémer, pp. 263 ff., where the earlier bibliography will be found, 


224 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


p. 271.—Showerman, “The Great Mother of the Gods” (Bulle- 
tin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 43), Madison, 1901.— 
Hepding, Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult, Giessen, 1903.— 
Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 
1905, pp. 547 ff.—Gruppe, Griech. Mythologie, 1906, pp. 1521 ff. 
Eisele, “Die phrygischen Kulte,” Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. 
Altertum, XXIII, 1900, pp. 620 ff. 

For a number of years Henri Graillot has been collecting the 
monuments of the religion of Cybele with a view to publishing 
them in their entirety—Numerous remarks on the Phrygian 
religion will be found in the works and articles of Ramsay, 
especially in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 1895, and 
Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 1906. 


1. Arrien, fr. 30 (FGH, IIl, p. 592). Cf. our Studia Pon- 
tica, 1905, pp. 172 ff., and Statius, Achill., I], 345: “Phrygas 
lucos....vetitasque solo, procumbere pinus”’; Virg., Aen., IX, 


85. 


2. Lion; cf. S. Reinach, Mythes, cultes, I, p. 293. The lion, 
represented in Asia Minor at a very remote period as de- 
vouring a bull or other animals, might possibly represent the 
sacred animal of Lydia or Phrygia vanquishing the protecting 
totem of the tribes of Cappadocia or the neighboring countries 
(I am using the term totem in its broadest meaning). This 
at least is the interpretation given to similar groups in Egypt. 
Cf. Foucart, La méthode comparat. et histoire des religions, 
1909, Pp. 49, DP. 70. 


3. Ilérvca Onpwrv, On this title, cf. Radet, Revue des études 
anciennes, X, 1908, pp. 110 ff. The most ancient type of the 
goddess, a winged figure leading lions, is known from monu- - 
ments dating back to the period of the Mermnadi (687-546 
Bue); 


4. Cf. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I, p. 7, p. 94. 


5. Foucart, Le culte de Dionysos en Attique (Extract from 
the Mém. Acad. Inscr., XX XVII), 1904, pp. 22 ff—The Thra- 
cians also seem to have spread, in Asia Minor, the cult of the 
“riding god” which existed until the beginning of the Roman 
period; cf. Remy, Le Musée belge, XI, 1907, pp. 136 ff. 


6. Catullus, LXIII. 


NOTES—ASIA MINOR. 225 


7. The development of these mysteries has been well ex- 
pounded by Hepding, pp. 177 ff. (see Gruppe, Gr. Myth., p. 
1544).—Ramsay has recently commented upon inscriptions of 
Phrygian mystics, united by the knowledge of certain secret 
signs (Tékuwp); cf. Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 
1906, pp. 346 ff. 

8. Dig., XLVITI, 8, 4, 2: “Nemo liberum servumve invitum 
sinentemve castrare debet.” Cf. Mommsen, Strafrecht, p. 637. 


g. Diodorus, XXXVI, 6; cf. Plutarch, Marius, 17. 

10. Cf. Hepding, op. cit., p. 142. 

11. Cf. chap. VI. 

12. Wissowa, Op. cit., p. 2QI. 

13. Hepding, op. cit., pp. 145 ff. Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, Real- 
enc., s. v. “Dendrophori,” V, col. 216 and Suppl., col, 225, 
sv.“ Attis;” 

14. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XI, 15. . 


15. This opinion has recently been defended by Showerman, 
Classical Journal, II, 1906, p. 29. 


16. Frazer, The Golden Bough, II’, pp. 130 ff. 


17. Hepding, pp. 160 ff. Cf. the texts of Ambrosiaster cited 
in Rev. hist. et litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 423, n. I, 


18. Hepding, p. 193. Cf. Gruppe, p. 1541. 


19. On this diffusion, cf. Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon, s. v. 
“Meter,” col. 918. 


20. Gregory of Tours, De glor. confess., c. 76. Cf. Passio 
S. Symphoriani in Ruinart, Acta sinc., ed. of 1859, p. 125. The 
carpentum mentioned in these texts is found in Africa; cf. 
CIL, VIII, 8457, and Graillot, Rev. archéol., 1904, I, p. 3533 
Hepding, op. cit., p. 173, n. 7. 

21. Oappeite pvotat Tov Oeov ceowopévov | tora yap tuiv éx rover 
owrnpia; cf. Hepding, op. ctt., p. 167.—Attis has become a god 
through his death (see Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 93), and 
in the same way were his votaries to become the equals of the 
divinity through death. The Phrygian epitaphs frequently 
have the character of dedications, and it appears that the 
graves were grouped about the temple, see Ramsay, Studies, 
pp. 65 ff., 271 ff., passim. 


226 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


22. Perdrizet, Bull. corr. hell., XIX, 1905, p. 534 ff. 


23. We know of those beliefs of the Sabaziasts from the 
frescoes in the catacombs of Praetextatus; the Mercurius 
nuntius, who leads the dead, is found beside Attis under the 
Greek name of Hermes (see Hepding, p. 263).—Maybe the 
inscription CIL, VI, 509 = Inscr. graec., XIV, 1018, should 
be completed: ‘Pely [‘Epug] re yeveO\w; cf. CIL, VI, 499. Her- 
mes appears beside the Mother of the gods on a bas-relief by 
Ouchak published by Michon, Rev. des études anciennes, 1906, 
p. 185, pl. II. See also Mendel, “Musée de Brousse,” Bull. 
corr. hell., 1909, p. 255.—The Thracian Hermes is mentioned 
in Herodotus, see Maury, Rel. de la Gréce, III, p. 136. 


24. Besides Bellona-Ma, subordinate to Cybele and Sabazius, 
who was as much Jewish as Phrygian, there was only one 
god of Asia Minor, the Zeus Bronton (the Thunderer) of 
Phrygia, prominently mentioned in Roman epigraphy. See 
Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s.v. and Suppl. I, col. 258. 


25. Cf. CIL, VI, 499: “Attidi menotyranno invicto.” “In- 
victus” is the characteristic epithet of the solar divinities. 


26. P. Perdrizet, “Mén” (Bull. corr. hell., XX), 1896; Drex- 
ler in Roscher, Lexikon, s.v., II, col. 2687. 


27. CIL, Vi, 50 == Inscrs graec.,' XIV, 1018. 


28. Schiirer, Sitzungsb. Akad. Berlin, XIII, 1897, p. 200f. 
and our Hypsistos (Suppl. Revue instr. publ. en Belgique), 
1897. 

29. The term is taken from the terminology of the mys- 
teries: the inscription cited dates back to 370 A. D. In 364, in 
connection with Eleusis, Agorius Praetextatus spoke of ouvé- 
xXovra 7d avOpwmreioy yévos aywrara pvornpia (Zozimus, IV, 3, 
2). Earlier the “Chaldean oracles” applied to the intelligible god 
the term “n7Tpa ovvéxovoa Ta wadvTa (Kroll, De orac. Chaldeicis, 
D7). ; 

30. Henri Graillot, Les dieux Tout-Puissants, Cybéle et Attts 
(Revue archéol., 1904, 1), pp.. 331 ff.—Graillot is rather in- 
clined to admit a Christian influence, but omnipotentes was 
used as a liturgic epithet in 288 A. D., and at about the same 
date Arnobius (VII, 32) made use of the periphrasis omni- 
potentia numina to designate the Phrygian gods, and he cer- 


NOTES—ASIA MINOR. 22/7 


tainly was understood by all. This proves that the use of that 
periphrasis was general, and that it must have dated back to 
a much earlier period. As a matter of fact a dedication has 
been found at Delos, reading Avg? T@ mavtwv Kparovvte Kat Myzpi 
uEyaAne THE TavTwV Kpatovoy (Bull. corr. hellén., 1882, p. 502, No. 
25), that reminds the reader of the tavroxpdrwp of the Septu- 
gint; and Graillot (loc. cit., p. 328, n. 7) justly observes, in this 
connection, that on certain bas-reliefs Cybele was united with 
the Theos Hypsistos, that is to say, the god of Israel; see 
Perdrizet, Bull. corr. hell., XXIII, 1899, p. 598. On the in- 
fluence of Judaism on the cult of Men cf. Sam. Wide, Archiv 
fiir Religionsw., 1909, p. 227,—On the omnipotence of the 
Syrian gods, see ch. V, pp. 128 ff. 


31. We are here giving the substance of a short essay on 
“Les mystéres de Sabazius et le judaisme,” published in the 
Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., Febr. 9, 1906, pp. 63 ff. Cf. “A 
propos de Sabazius,’ Musée belge, XIV, 1910, pp. 56 ff. 


32. Cf. Monuments myst. de Mithra, I, p. 333f. The very 
early assimilation of Cybele and Anahita justifies to a certain 
extent the unwarranted practice of calling Cybele the Persian 
Artemis. See Radet, Revue des études anciennes, X, 1908, p. 
157. The pagan theologians often considered Attis as the 
primeval man whose death brought about the creation, and so 
they likened him to the Mazdean Gayomart, see Bousset, 
Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, 1907, pp. 184 ff. 


33. Prudentius, Peristeph., X, 1011 f. 


34. Their meaning has been revealed through an inscription 
at Pergamum published by Schréder, Athen. Mitt., 1904, pp. 
152 ff.; cf. Revue archéologique, 1905, I, pp. 29 ff.—The ideas 
on the development of that ceremony, which we are summar- 
izing here, have been expounded by us more fully in the 
Revue archéologique, 1888, II, pp. 132ff.; Mon. myst. de Mithra, 
I, pp. 334 ff.; Revue d’histoire et de litt. relig., VI, 1901, p. 97.— 
Although the conclusions of the last article have been con- 
tested by Hepding (op. cit., 7of.), it cannot be doubted that 
the taurobolium was already practised in Asia Minor, in the 
cult of the Ma-Bellona. Moore (American Journal of Arche- 
ology, 1905, p. 71) justly refers to the text of Steph. Byz., in 
this connection: Mdoravpa: éxadeiro dé kai 7 ‘Péa MG kai ravpoc avry 


228 ; THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


éOvero mapa Avdotc. The relation between the cult of Ma and 
that of Mithra is shown in the epithet of ’Aveixyros, given to 
the goddess as well as to the god; see Athen. Mitt., XXIX, 
1904, p. 169, and Keil und von Premerstein, “Reise in Lydien,” 
Denkschr. Akad. Wien, 1908, p. 28 (inscription of the Hyr- 
kanis plain). 

35. Prudentius, Peristeph., 1027: Pectus sacrato dividunt ve- 
nabulo.” The harpé shown on the taurobolic altars, is perhaps 
in reality a boar-spear having a kind of hilt (mora; cf. Grat- 
tius, Cyneg., 110) to prevent the blade from entering too far. 


36. Hepding, pp. 106 ff.; cf. supra, n. 21. 


37. CIL, VI, 510, = Dessau, instr. sel Als2? .GieGruppe, 
Griech. Myth., p. 1541, n. 7. 


38. Hepding, pp. 186 ff. 


39. CIL, VI, 499: “Dii animae mentisque custodes.” Cf. 512: 
“Diis magnis et tutatoribus suis,” and CJL, XII, 1277, where 
Bel is called mentis magister. 


40. Hippolytus, Refut. haeres., V, 9. 


41. Julien, Or., V; cf. Paul Allard, Julien l Apostat, II, pp. 
246 ff.; Mau, Die Religionsphilosophie Kaiser Julians, 1908, pp. 
go ff. Proclus also devoted a philosophic commentary to the 
Cybele myth (Marinus, Vita Procli, 34). 


42. Regarding all this see Revue d’histoire et de littérat: 
relig., VIII, 1903, pp. 423, ff.—Frazer (Osiris, Attis, Adonis, 
1907, pp. 2560 ff.) has recently defended the position that the 
commemoration of the death of Christ was placed by a great 
many churches upon March 25th to replace the celebration of 
Attis’s death on the same date, just as Christmas has been 
substituted for the Natalis Invictt. The text of Ambrosiaster 
cited in our article (Pseudo Augustin, Quaest, veter. Test, 
LXXXIV, 3, p. 145, 13, Souter ed.) shows that this was as- 
serted even in antiquity. 


INDEGY Pa 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lafaye, Histoire du culte des divinités d’Ale- 
xandrie hors de lEgypte, Paris, 1884, and article “Isis” in 
Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionn. des antiquités, III, 1800, 


NOTES—EGYPT. 229 


where may be found (p. 586) an index of the earlier works.— 
Drexler, art. “Isis” in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythol., II, p. 
373-548.—Réville, op. cit., pp. 54 ff—Wissowa, op. cit., pp. 
292 ff.—Dill, op. cit., pp. 560 ff.—Gruppe, Griechische Mytho- 
logie und Religionsgesch., pp. 1563-1581 (published after the 
revision of this chapter)—The study of the Roman cult of 
the ‘Alexandrian gods is inseparable from that of the Egyptian 
religion. It would be impossible to furnish a bibliography of 
the latter here. We shall only refer the reader to the general 
works of Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie, 4 vols., Paris, 1893, 
and Histotre ancienne des peuples de l Orient, 1805 (passim). 
—Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 
1897 [cf. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, “Religion of 
Egypt,’ V, pp. 177-197].—Erman, Die dgyptische Religion, 
Berlin, 1910.—Naville, La religion des anciens Egyptiens (six 
lectures delivered at the Collége de France), 1906.—W. Otto, 
Priester und Tempel im hellenistischen Aegypten, 2 vols., 1905, 
1908.—The publication of a Bulletin critique des religions de 
rEgypte by Jean Capart, begun in the Rev. de Vhist. des reli- 
gions (LI, 1905, pp. 192 ff.; LIII, 1906, pp. 307 ff.; 1900, pp. 
162 ff.). 

1. Cf. on this controversy Bouché-Leclercg, Histoire des 
Lagides, I, p. 102; S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, I, 
pp. 3471.; Lehmann, Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, TV, 1904, 
pp. 306 ff.; Wilcken, Archiv f. Papyrusforschung, III, 1904, 
pp. 249 ff.; Otto, Priester. und Tempel, I, 1905, pp. 11 ff.; 
Gruppe, Joc. cit., pp. 1578 ff.; Petersen, Die Serapislegende, 
1910, pp. 47 ff.; Schmidt, Kultibertragungen, 1910, pp. 47 ff. 

2. Herodotus, II, 42, 171.—Cf. n. 4. 


3. /Elius Aristides, VIII, 56 (I, p. 96, ed. Dindorf). Cf. 
Plut., De Iside et Osiride, ed. Parthey, p. 216. 


4. Plut., De Is. et Osir., 28; cf. Otto, Priester und Tempel, 
II, pp. 215 ff.— This Timotheus is undoubtedly the same 
one that wrote about the Phrygian mysteries; see infra, n. 
79.—The question, to what extent the Hellenistic cult had the 
form ascribed to it by Plutarch and Apuleius immediately 
after its creation, is still unsettled; see Otto, Priester und 
Tempel, II, p. 222. We do not appear to have any direct 
proof of the existence of “mysteries” of Isis and Serapis 


230 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


prior to the Empire, but all probabilities are in favor of a 
more ancient origin, and the mysteries were undoubtedly 
connected with the ancient Egyptian esoterism.—See infra, 
n. 78. 


5. Diogenes Laertius, V, 5, § 76: ‘Odev Kat tov¢g racavag rotjoat 
Tove péxpe viv douévove. The wéxpe viv Diogenes took undoubtedly 
from his source, Didymus. See Artemidorus, Onirocr., II, 44 (p. 
143, 25 Hercher).—This information is explicitly confirmed 


by an inscription which mentions 9% lepa Taig tév maavioTav 


(Inscr. Graec., XIV, 1034). 


6. Kaibel, Epigr. 1028= Abel, Orphica, p. 2095, etc.—See 
supra, ch. I, n. 14.—According to recent opinion, M. de Wila- 
mowitz was good enough to write me, the date of the Andros 
hymn cannot have been later than the period of Cicero, and it 
is very probably contemporary with Sulla—See supra, ch. I, 
n. 14.—On other similar texts, see Gruppe, Griech. Mythol., 
p. 1563. 

7. Amelung, Le Sérapis de Bryaxis (Revue archéol, 1903, 
IT), p.9178. 


8. P. Foucart, Le culte de Dionysos en Attique (Mém. Acad. 
des Inscr., XXXVII), 1904. On the Isis cult in ancient 
Greece, we can now refer to Gruppe, Griech. Myth., pp. 1565 
ff.; Ruhl, De Sarapide et Iside in Graecia cultis (Diss. Berlin) 
1906, has made careful use of the epigraphic texts dating 
back to the time before the Roman period. 


9. The only exception is the Zeus Ammon, who was only 
half Egyptian and owed his very early adoption to the Greek 
colonies of Cyrene; see Gruppe, Griech. Myth., p. 1558. The 
addition of other goddesses, like Nephtis or Bubastis to Isis 
is exceptional. 


10. Concerning the impression which Egypt made on trav- 
elers, see Friedlander, Sittengesch., 11°, 144 ff.; Otto, Priester 
und Tempel, II, p. 210. 


11. Juvenal, XV, 10, and the notes of Friedlander on these 
passages.—The Athenian comic writers frequently made fun 
of the Egyptian zoolatry (Lafaye, op. cit., p. 32). Philo of 
Alexandria considered the Egyptians as the most idolatrous 
heathens and he attacked their animal worship, in particular 


NOTES—EGYPT. 231 


(De Decal., 16, II, p. 193 M., and passim). The pagan writers 
were no less scandalized (Cicero, Nat. deor., III, 15, etc.) ex- 
cept where they preferred to apply their ingenuity to justify 
it. See Dill, loc. cit., p. 571—The features of this cult in 
ancient Egypt have been recently studied by George Foucart, 
Revue des idées, Nov. 15, 1908, and La méthode comparative 
ct l'histoire des religions, 1900, pp. 43 ff. 

12. Macrobius, Sat., I, 20, § 16. 

13. Holm, Gesch. Siziliens, I, p. 81. 

14. Libanius, Or., XI, 114 (I, p. 473 Forster). Cf. Drexler 
in Roscher, op. cit., col. 378. 

15. Pausan., I, 18, 4: Zapamidos dy mapa IWrodeuatov dedy elon- 
yayovro, Ruhl (op. cit., p. 4) attaches no historic value to this 
text, but, as he points out himself, we have proof that an 
official Isis cult existed at Athens under Ptolemy Soter, and 
that Serapis was worshiped in that city at the beginning of 
the third century. 

16. Dittenberger, Or. gr. inscr. sel., No. 16. 

17. Apul., Metam., XI, 17. 

18. Thus it is found to be the case from the first half of 
the third century at Thera, a naval station of the Ptolemies 
(Hiller von Gartringen, Thera, III, pp. 85 ff.; cf. Ruhl, op. cit., 
p. 59), and also at Rhodes (Rev. archéol., 1905, I, p. 341). 
Cult of Serapis at Delos, cf. Comptes rendus Acad. inscr., 1910, 
pp. 294 ff. 

19. A number of proofs of its diffusion have been collected 
by Drexler, loc. cit., p. 379. See Lafaye, “Isis” (cf. supra), 
p. 577; and Ruhl, De Sarapide et Iside in Graecta cultis, 1906. 

20. This interpretation has already been proposed by Ra- 
vaisson (Gazette archéologique, I, pp. 55 ff.), and I believe it 
to be correct, see Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1906, p. 75, n. I. 

21. The power of the Egyptian cult in the Oriental half of 
the empire has been clearly shown by von Domaszewski (Rém. 
Mitt., XVII, 1902, pp. 333 ff.), but perhaps with some exag- 
geration. All will endorse the restrictions formulated by Har- 
nack, Ausbreitung des Christentums, II, p. 274. 


22. The very early spread of Orphic doctrines in Magna 
Graecia, evidenced by the tablets of Sybaris and Petilia (Diels, 


L028 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Vorsokratiker, 11’, p. 480) must have prepared the way for it. 
These tablets possess many points in common with the eschato- 
logical beliefs of Egypt, but, as their latest commentator justly 
remarks (Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Re- 
ligion, p. 624), these new ideas are fairly overwhelmed in the 
old mythology. The mysteries of Isis and Serapis seemed to 
offer a revelation that had been a presentiment for a long 
time, and the affirmation of a truth foreshadowed by early 
symbols. 


23.-GILLy Rear 7Sied, 15-0. 

24. Apul., Metam., XI, 30. 

25. Wissowa, op. cit., p. 292-3; cf. Seeck, Hermes, XLIII, 
1908, p. 642. 

26. Manicheism was later persecuted on a similar pretext, 


see Collat. Mos. et Rom. leg., 15, 3, $4: “De Persica adver- 
saria nobis gente progressa.” 


27. A full list of the inscriptions and monuments discovered 
in the various cities is given by Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon, - 
s.v. “Isis,” II, col. 4009 ff. 

28. Hirschfeld, CIL, XII, p. 382, and Wiener Studien, V, 
1883, pp. 319-322. 

29. Cf. Wissowa, op. cit., pp. 294 ff. 


30. Minuc. Fel., Octav. 22, 2: “Haec A°gyptia quondam nunc 
et sacra Romana sunt.” 


31. Carmen contra paganos (Anthol. lat., ed. Riese, I, 20 ff.) 
v. OI, 95 ff.; cf. Ps. Aug., Quaest. Vet. Test., CXIV, 11 (p. 308, 
10 Souter), and Rev. hist. litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 422, n. I. 


32. Rufin, Il, 24: “Caput ipsum idolatriae.”” A miniature 
from an Alexandrian chronicle shows the patriarch Theophilus, 
crowned with a halo, stamping the Serapeum under foot, see 
Bauer and Strzygowski, Eine alexandrinische Weltchronik 
(Denkschr. Akad. Wien, L1), 1905, to the year 391, pp. 70 ff., 
122) -and spl. SV1. 


33. Cf. Drexler in. Roscher,,s. -v. “Isis,’ IJ; p. 425; Harnack, 
Ausbreitung des Christentums, Il, pp. 147 ff—Some curious 
details showing the persistence of the Isis cult among the pro- 
fessors and students of Alexandria during the last years of the 


NOTES—EGYPT. 233 


fifth century are given in the life of Severus of Antioch by 
Zachariah the Scholastic (Patrol. orient., I, ed. Kugener), pp. 
17.05.27. 4%. 


34. Ps.-Apul. 34. Compare with a similar prophecy in the 
Sibylline oracles, V, 184 f. (p. 127, Geffcken ed.). 


35. Iseum of Beneventum; cf. Notizie debgli scavi di ant., 
1904, pp. 107 ff. Iseum of the Campus Martius: see Lanciani, 
Bollet. communale di Roma, 1883, pp. 33 ff.; Marucchi, ibid., 
1890, pp. 307 f—The signa Memphitica (made of Memphian 
marble), are mentioned in an inscription (Dessau, Juscr. sel., 
4367-8) .—The term used in connection with Caracalla: “Sacra 
Isidis Romam deportavit,’ which Spartianus (Carac., 9; cf. 
Aur. Vict., C@s., 21, 4) no longer understood, also seems to 
refer to a transfer of sacred Egyptian monuments. At Delos 
a statue of a singer taken from some grave of the Sais period 
had been placed in the temple. Everything Egyptian was 
looked upon as sacred. (Ruhl, op. cit., p. 53). 


36. Gregorovius, Gesch. des Kaisers Hadrian, pp. 222 ff.; cf. 
Drexler, loc. cit., p. 410. 


37. The term is Wiedemann’s. 
38. Naville, op. cit., pp. 89 ff. 


39. On the iepoypayzparevs Cheremon, see Otto, Priester und 
Tempel Il, p. 216; Schwartz in Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., III, 
col. 2025 ff. 


40. Doctrines of Plutarch: cf. Decharme, Traditions reli- 
gieuses chez les Grecs, pp. 486 ff. and supra, ch. I, n. 20. 


41. I did not mention Hermetism, made prominent by the 
researches of Reitzenstein, because I believe its influence in 
the Occident to have been purely literary. To my knowledge 
there is no trace in the Latin world of an Hermetic sect with 
a clergy and following. The Heliognostae or Deinvictiact who, 
in Gaul, attempted to assimilate the native Mercury with the 
Egyptian Thoth, (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 49, n. 2; cf. 359), 
were Christian gnostics. I believe that Reitzenstein misunder- 
stood the facts when he stated (Wundererzahlungen, 1906, p. 
128): “Die hermetische Literatur ist im zweiten und dritten 
Jahrhundert fiir alle religids-interessierten der allgemeine 
Ausdruck der Frommigkeit geworden.” I believe that Her- 


234 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


metism, which is used as a label for doctrines of very dif- 
ferent origin, was influenced by “the universal spirit of de- 
votion,” and was not its creator. It was the result of a long 
continued effort to reconcile the Egyptian traditions first with 
Chaldean astrology, then with Greek philosophy, and it be- 
came transformed simultaneously with the philosophy. But 
this subject would demand extended development. It is ad- 
mitted by Otto, the second volume of whose book has been 
published since the writing of these lines, that not even dur- 
ing the Hellenistic period was there enough theological activ- 
ity of the Egyptian clergy to influence the religion of the 
times. (Priester und Tempel, II, pp. 218-220). 

42. Plut., De Isid., 9. 

43. Apul., Metam., XI, 5. 

44. CIL, X, 3800 = Dessau, Inscr. sel., 4362. 

45. See the opening pages of this chapter. 

46. Plut,. De Iside et Osir., 52; cf. Hermes Trismegistus, 
“Opot "AckAnriov, c. 16; and Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 197. 

47. Cf. Naville, op. cit., pp. 170 ff. 

48. Juv., VI, 489: “Isiacae sacraria lenae”; cf. Friedlander, 
Sittengeschichte, 1°, p. 502. 

49. In a recent book Farnell has brilliantly outlined the his- 
tory of the ritual of purification and that of the conception of 
purity throughout antiquity (Evolution of Religion, London, 
1905, pp. 88-192), but unfortunately he has not taken Egypt 
into account where the primitive forms have been maintained 
with perhaps the fewest alterations. 

50. Juv., VI, 522 ff. 

51. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, I°, p.510.—On this trans- 
formation of the Isis cult, cf. Réville, op. cit., p. 56. 

52. Plut., De Iside, c. 2; cf. Apul., Met., XI, 6, end. 

53. AZlius Arist., In Sarap., 25 (II, p. 359, Keil ed.); see 
Diodorus, I, 93, and Apuleius, XI, 6, end—On future rewards 
and punishments in Hermetism, see Ps.-Apul., Asclepius, c. 
28; Lydus, De mensib., IV, 32 and 149, Wtinsch ed. 


54. Porph., Epist. ad Aneb., 29. The answer of the Ps.- 
Iamblichus (de Myst., VI, 5-7) is characteristic. He main- 


NOTES—EGYPT. 235 


tained that these threats were addressed to demons; how- 
ever, he was well aware that the Egyptians did not distinguish 
clearly between incantations and prayers (VI, 7, 5). 


55. Ci. G. Hock, Griechische Wethegebrauche, 1905, pp. 65 ff. 
Ps.-Apul., Asclep., 23: “Homo fictor est deorum qui in templis 
sunt et non solum inluminatur, verum etiam inluminat”; c. 37: 
“Proavi invenerunt artem qua efficerent deos.” Cf. George 
Foucart, loc. cit. [n. 61]: “La statuaire égyptienne a, avant 
tout autre, le caractére de créer des étres vivants.” 


56. Maspero, Sur la toute-puissance de la parole (Recueil de 
travaux, XXIV), 1902, pp. 163-175; cf. my Récherches sur le 
manichéisme, p..24, n. 2.—The parallelism between the divine 
and the sacerdotal influence is established in Ps.-Apul., As- 
clepius, 23. 

57. Iamblichus, Myst., VI, 6; cf. G. Foucart, La méthode 
comparative et l'histoire des religions, 1900, p. 131, 141, 149 ff. 
and infra, n. 66. The Egyptians prided themselves on having 
been the first “to know the sacred names and to use the sacred 
speech” (Luc., De Dea Syr., 1). 


58. This has been proven by Otto, Priester und Tempel, I, 
pp. 114 ff. Cf. supra, chap. II, n. 35. Certain busts have re- 
cently inspired Mr. Dennison to give his attention to the 
tonsure of the votaries of Isis (American Journ. of Archeol- 
ogy, V, 1905, p. 341). The Pompeian frescoes representing 
priests and ceremonies of the Isis cult are particularly impor- 
tant for our knowledge of the liturgy (Guimet, C. R. Acad. des 
Inscr., 1896, pls. VII-IX. Cf. von Bissing, Transact. congr. 
relig. Oxford, 1908, I, pp. 225 ff.). 

59. CIL, XII, 3061: “Ornatrix fani.” 

60. Cf. Kan, De Iove Dolicheno, 1901, p. 33. 


61. Cf. Moret, Le rituel du culte divin journalier en Egypte, 
Paris, 1902. Just as the ritual of consecration brought the 
statue to life (supra, n. 55), the repeated sacrifices sustained 
life and made it longa durare per tempora (Ps.-Apul., Asclep., 
38). The epithet of deffwos, given to several divinities (C/G, 
4598; Griech. Urkunden of Berlin, I, No. 124), expresses it 
exactly. All this is in conformity with the old ideas prevailing 
in the valley of the Nile (see George Foucart, Revue des 


236 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


idées, Noy. 15, 1908).—When compared with the Egyptian 
ceremonial, the brief data scattered through the Greek and 
Latin authors become wonderfully clear and coherent. 


62. Apul., XI, 22: “Rituque sollemni apertionis celebrato 
ministerio.” Cf. XI, 20: “Matutinas apertiones templi.” 


63. Jusephus, Ant. Jud., XVIII, 3, 5, § 174. 


64. Servius ad Verg., Aen., IV, 512: “In templo Isidis aqua 
sparsa de Nilo esse dicebatur”; cf. II], 116. When, by pour- 
ing water taken from the river, reality took the place of this 
fiction, the act was much more effective; see Juv. VII, 527. 


65. This passage, together with a chapter from Apuleius 
(XI, 20), is the principal text we mave in connection with the 
ritual of those Isis matins. (De Abstin., IV, 9): 

“Qo mov étt Kal viv év TH avoiget TOV ayiov Lapariwoc 7 Oeparreia dia 
mupoc Kal vdatog yivetal, Aeibovtog TOV LuVvwood TO ddwp Kal TO TP gai- 
vovToc, ornvixa Eota¢ éxl Tov ovdOd TH TaTpiw TOV AlyuTTiwv dori EyEl- - 
pet Tov Decor, 

Arnobius (VII, 32) alludes to the same belief of the votaries 
of Isis: “Quid sibi volunt excitationes illae quas canitis ma- 
tutini conlatis ad tibiam vocibus? Obdormiscunt enim superi 
remeare ut ad vigilias debeant? Quid dormitiones illae quibus 
ut bene valeant auspicabili salutatione mandatis ?” 


66. On the power of “barbarian names” see my Mon. myst. 
Mithra, I, p. 313, n. 4; Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, pp. 111 ff. 
Cf. Charles Michel, Note sur un passage de Jamblique (Mé- 
langes, Louis Havet), 1909, p. 279.—On the persistence of the 
same idea among the Christians, cf. Harnack, Ausbreitung des 
Christ., I, pp. 124 ff.; Heitmiiller, Jm Namen Jesu, Gottingen, 
1903 (rich material). 


67. Apul., Met., XI, 9. 
68. CIL, Il, 3386 = Dessau, Inscr. sel., 442; cf. 4423. 


69. Apul., XI, 24; cf. Lafaye, pp. 118 ff. Porphyry (De 
Abstin., IV, 6) dwells at length on this contemplative char- 
acter of the Egyptian devotion: The priests amédocay 6dov Tov 
Blov rq Trav Dewy Oewpia Kal Oedcet, 


70. In the Pharaonic ritual the closing ceremony seems to 
have taken place during the morning, but in the Occident the 
sacred images were exposed for contemplation, and the an- 


NOTES—EGYPT. oan 


cient Egyptian service must, therefore, have been divided into 
two ceremonies. 

71. Herodotus, II, 37. 

72. Cf. Maspero, Rev. critique, 1905, II, p. 361 ff. 

73. Apul., Metam., XI, 7 ff—This festival seems to have 
persisted at Catana in the worship of Saint Agatha; cf. Ana- 
lecta Bollandiana, XXV, 1906, p. 509. 

74. Similar masquerades are found in a number of pagan 
cults (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 315), and from very early 
times they were seen in Egypt; see von Bissing, loc. cit., n. 58, 
p. 228. 

75. The pausarii are mentioned in the inscriptions; cf. Des- 
sau, Iuscr. sel., 4353, 4445. 

76. Schafer, Die Mysterien des Osiris in Abydos unter Se- 
sostris III, Leipsic, 1904; cf. Capart, Rev. hist. relig., LI, 1905, 
p. 229, and Wiedemann, Mélanges Nicole, pp. 574 ff. Junker, 
“Die Stundenwachen in den Osirismysterien” (Denkschrift 
Akad. Wien, LIV) toto. 


77. In the Abydos mysteries, the god Thoth set out in a boat 
to seek the body of Osiris. Elsewhere it was Isis who sailed 
out in quest of it. We do not know whether this scene was 
played at Rome; but it certainly was played at Gallipoli where 
make-believe fishermen handled the nets in a make-believe 
Nile; cf. P. Foucart, Rech. sur les myst. d’Eleusis (Mém. 
Acad. Inscr., XXXV), p. 37. 

78. Cheremon in Porphyry, Epist. ad Aneb., 31: 

Kal ta xpurra tic’ lowdog émaivei Kai 76 Ev’ Abbdw ardppytov deiget. 

Cf. Iamblichus, De myster., VI, 5-7—On the “mysteries” of 
Teignine tovot. cl. Pouca, 40C.: 6th. Dac lous: De cJong,: De 
Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste, Leyden, 1900, pp. 79 f., 
and Das antike Mysterienwesen, Leyden, 1909. 

79. Cf. supra—De Jong, op. ctt., pp. 40 ff.; Gruppe, Griech. 
Mythol., p. 1574. 


80. La Cité antique, I, ch. II, end. 
81. Cf. Erman, of. cit., pp. 96-97. 


82. Sufficient proof is contained in the bas-reliefs cited above 
(n. 20), where apotheosized death assumes the shape of Sera- 


238 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


pis. Compare Kaibel, Jnscr. gr., XIV, 2008: Evpixe pera rov 
’Oceipidos, This material conception of immortality could be 
easily reconciled with the old Italian ideas, which had per- 
sisted in a dormant state in the minds of the people, see Fried- 
lander, Sittengeschichte, III,° p. 758. 


83. Reitzenstein, Archiv fiir Religionswiss., VII, 1904, 406 ff. 
These are perhaps the most striking pages written on the 
meaning of the ceremony; it is an dma@avariouds, Cf. also 
Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzahlungen, p. 116. 


84. Apul., Metam., 23.—De Jong, the latest commentator on 
this passage, seems inclined to take it as a mere ecstatic vision, 
but the vision was certainly caused by a dramatic scene in 
the course of which hell and heaven were shown in the dark. 
—The Egyptians represented them even on the stage; see 
Suetonius, Calig., 8: “Parabatur et in mortem spectaculum quo 
argumenta inferorum per Aegyptios et Aethiopas explicaren- 
ture. 

85. Apul., Met., XI, 6 end. 


86. Ibid., c. 24: “Inexplicabili voluptate <aspectu>> divini 
simulacri perfruebar.” 

87. Plut., De Isid., 78, p. 383 A: 

‘Qe av &Enptnuévace (taic Wuyaic) an’ abtov (Tov 'Ooipidoc) kai Vewpév- 
aie aTAhoTuc Kal ToOobaac TH wR paTdv unde PyToV avoparole KAAAOC. 


88. Cf., supra, n. 22. 


89. We find similar wishes on the Egyptian monuments, 
frequently at least since the Middle Empire. “Donnez-moi 
de l’eau courante a boire....Mettez-moi la face au vent du 
nord sur le bord de l’eau et que sa fraicheur calme mon cceur” 
(Maspero, Etudes égyptiennes, I, 1881, p. 189). “Oh, si j’avais 
de eau courante a boire et si mon visage était tourné vers le 
vent du nord” (Naville, op. cit., p. 174). On a funerary stele 
in the Brussels museum (Capart, Guide, 1905, p. 71) is in- 
scribed, “Que les dieux accordent de boire l’eau des sources, 
de respirer les doux vents du nord.’—The very material 
origin of this wish appears in the funeral texts, where the 
soul is shown crossing the desert, threatened with hunger 
and thirst, and obtaining refreshment by the aid of the gods 
(Maspero, Etudes de mythol. et darchéol, égypt., 1883, I, pp. 


NOTES—EGYPT. 239 


366 ff.).—On a tablet at Petilia (see supra, n. 22), the soul 
of the deceased is required to drink the fresh water (Yvxpov 
téwp) flowing from the lake of Memory in order to reign with 
the heroes. There is nothing to prevent our admitting with 
Foucart (“Myst. d’Eleusis,’ Mém. Acad. des Inscr., XXXV, 2, 
p. 67), that the Egyptian ideas may have permeated the Orphic 
worship of southern Italy after the fourth or third century, 
since they are found expressed a hundred years earlier at 
Carpentras (infra, n. 90). 


e 


go. Aoin cot 6’’Oorpic 76 Yuyxpov ddwp, at Rome: Kaibel, Juscr. gr. 
XIV, 1488, 1705, 1782, 1842; cf. 658 and C/Z, VI, 3, 20616.— Zo! 
dé ’Oceipidog dyvov tdup Eloi yapioato, Rev. archéol., 1887, p. 199, - 
cf. 201.—Yvyii dipdon Woypiv tdup petddoc, C/G, 6267=—=Kaibel, 1890. 
It is particularly interesting to note that almost the same wish 
appears on the Aramaic stele of Carpentras (C. J. Sem., II, 
141), which dates back to the fourth or fifth century B. C.: 
“Blessed be thou, take water from in front of Osiris.”—A 
passage in the book of Enoch manifestly inspired by Egyp- 
tian conceptions, mentions the “spring of water,’ the “spring 
of life,” in the realm of the dead (Enoch, xxii. 2, 9. Cf. Mar- 
tin, Le livre d’Hénoch, 1906, p. 58, n. 1, and Bousset, Relig. 
des Judentums, 1903, p 271). From Judaism the expression 
has passed into Christianity. Cf. Rev. vil. 17; xxi. 6. 


o1. The Egyptian origin of the Christian expression has 
frequently been pointed out and cannot be doubted; see La- 
faye, op. cit., p. 96, n. 1; Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 391; Kraus, 
Realencycl. der christl. Alt., s. vy. “Refrigerium”; and espe- 
cially Dieterich, Nekyia, pp. 95 ff. Cf. Perdrizet, Rev. des 
études anc., 1905, p. 32; Audollent, Mélanges Louis Havet, 
1909, p. 575.—The refrigerii sedes, which the Catholic Church 
petitions for the deceased in the anniversary masses, appears 
in the oldest Latin liturgies, and the Greeks, who do not be- 
lieve in purgatory, have always expressed themselves along 
the same lines. For instance, Nubian inscriptions which are 
in perfect agreement with the euchology of Constantinople hope 
the soul will rest év Témw xdoepw, ev Témw dvapigews (G. Le- 
febvre, Inscr. gr. chrét. dEg., No. 636, 664 ff., and introd., p. 
xxx; cf. Dumont, Mélanges, Homolle ed., pp. 585 ff.). The 
detail is not without significance because it furnishes a valu- 


240 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


able indication as to the Egyptian origin of prayer for the 
dead; this is unknown to Graeco-Roman paganism. which 
prayed to the deified dead but never for the dead as such. 
The Church took this custom from the Synagogue, but the 
Jews themselves seem to have taken it from the Egyptians 
during the Hellenistic period, undoubtedly in the course of 
the second century (S. Reinach, Cultes, mythes, I, p. 325), 
just as they were indebted to the Egyptians for the idea of 
the “spring of life” (supra, n.90). The formula in the Chris- 
tian inscriptions cited, 
avaravooy Tiy woyny év KbArog’ Abpadu Kat’ Ioadk Kat ’Iaxd6, 

appears to indicate a transposition of the doctrine of identi- 
fication with Osiris. In this way we can explain the persist- 
ence in the Christian formulary of expressions, like requies 
aeterna, corresponding to the most primitive pagan concep- 
tions of the life of the dead, who were not to be disturbed in 
their graves.—A name for the grave, which appears frequently 
in Latin epitaphs, viz., domus aeterna (or aeternalis) is un- 
doubtedly also of Egyptian importation. In Egypt, “la tombe 
est la maison du mort, sa maison d’étérnité, comme disent les 
textes” (Capart, Guide du musée de Bruxelles, 1905, p. 32). 
The Greeks were struck by this expression which appears in 
innumerable instances. Diodorus of Sicily (I, 51, §2) was 
aware that the Egyptians 

Tove TOV TEeTEAEvTHKOTOV TadbouUE didiove oiKovE TpocayopEbovaLY, HG EV 
“Adov diatedobvtTwv Tov aretpov aidva (cf. I, 93, § 1, et¢ THY alovioy 
olKHOLV).— 
It is probable that this appellation of the tomb passed from 
Egypt into Palestine and Syria. It appears already in Ec- 
clesiastes, xii. 7 (beth ’olam = “house of eternity”), and it is 
found in Syrian epigraphy (for instance in inscriptions of the 
third century (Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1906, p. 123), also 
in the epigraphy of Palmyra. (Chabot, Journal asiatique, 1900, 
p. 266, No. 47).—Possibly the hope for consolation, Evyixer, 
ovdels dOdvaros, frequently found engraved upon tombs even in 
Latin countries was also derived from the Egyptian religion, 
but this is more doubtful. Evyvxe is found in the epitaphs of 
initiates in the Alexandrian mysteries. Kaibel, Jnscr. gr., 
XIV, 1488, 1782 (Evpuyei xvpia at doin cot d’’Oorpic 7d Wuypev ddup), 
2008 (cf. supra, n. 90). Possibly the twofold meaning of 


NOTES—SYRIA. 241 


ebuxos which stands both for animosus and frigidus (see 
Dieterich, Nekyia, loc. cit.) has been played upon. But on the 
other hand, the idea contained in the formula “Be cheerful, 
nobody is immortal,” also inspired the “Song of the Harpist,” 
a canonical hymn that was sung in Egypt on the day of the 
funeral. It invited the listener to “make his heart glad” be- 
fore the sadness of inevitable death (Maspero, Etudes égyp- 
tiennes, I, 1881, pp. 171 ff.; cf. Naville, op. cit., p. 171). 


Noy a: 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Syrian religions have been studied with 
especial attention to their relation with Judaism: Baudissin, 
Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, 2 vols., Leipsic, 
1876. The same author has published veritable monographs 
on certain divinities (Astarte, Baal, Sonne, etc.) in the Real- 
encyclopadie fiir prot. Theol., of Herzog-Hauck, 3d ed.—Bath- 
gen, Beitrage zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, Berlin, 1888. 
—W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, 2d ed., 
London, 1894.—Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions sémitiques, 
2d ed., Paris, 1905. The results of the excavations in Pales- 
tine, which are important in regard to the funeral customs and 
the oldest idolatry, have been summarized by Father Hugues 
Vincent, Canaan d’aprés lexploration récente, 1907——On the 
propagation of the Syrian religions in the Occident, see Ré- 
ville, op. cit., pp. 70 et passim; Wissowa, Religion der Romer, 
pp. 20990 ff.; Gruppe, Griech. Mythol., pp. 1582 £—Important ob- 
servations will be found in Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d’ar- 
chéologie orientale, 8 vols., 1888, and in Dussaud, Notes de 
mythologie syrienne, Paris, 1903. We have published a series 
of articles on particular divinities in the Realencyclopadie of 
Pauly-Wissowa (Baal, Balsamem, Dea Syria, Dolichenus, Gad, 
etc.). Other monographs are cited below. 


1. Lucian, Lucius, 53 ff.;. Apul., Metam., VIII, 24 ff. The 
description by these authors has recently been confirmed by 
the discovery of an inscription at Kefr-Hauar in Syria: a 
slave of the Syrian goddess “sent by her mistress (xupta),” 
boasts of having brought back “seventy sacks” from each of 
her trips (Fossey, Bull. corr. hell., XXI, 1897, p. 60; on the 


242 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


meaning of mypa, “sack,” see Deissmann, Licht von Osten, 
1908, p. 73). 

2. Cf. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. Astrologie, col. 1816. 

3. Cato, De agric., V, 4. 

4. On dedication of Romans to Atargatis, see Bull. corr. 
hell., VI, 1882, p. 497, No. 15; p. 498, No. 17. 

5. Since the year 187 we find the Syrian musicians (sam- 
bucistriae) mentioned also at Rome. Their number grew 
steadily (Livy, XX XIX, 6; see Friedlander, Sittengesch., IIT’, 
p. 346. 

6. Florus, II, 7 (III, 9); cf. Diodorus Sic., fr. 34, 2, 5. 

7. Plut., Vit. Maru, 17. 

8. Juvenal, VI, 351; Martial, IV, 53, 10; IX, 2, 11, TX, 22, 9 


9g. CIL, VI, 399; cf. Wissowa, op. cit., p. 201.—Suetonius, 
Nero, 56. 


10. A temple of the Syrian gods at Rome, located at the 
foot of the Janiculum, has been excavated very recently. Cf. 
Gauckler, Bolletino communale di Roma, 1907, pp. 5 ff. (Cf. 
Hiilsen, Mitt. Inst. Rom, XXII, 1907, pp. 225 ff.); Comptes 
Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1907, pp. 135 ff.; 1908, pp. 510 ff.; 1909, 
pp. 424 ff., pp. 617 ff.; Nicole and Darier, Le sanctuaire des 
dieux orientaux au Janicule, Rome, 1909 (Extr. des “Mel. 
Ecole franc. de Rome,” XXIX). In it have been found dedi- 
cations to Hadad of the Lebanon, to the Hadad axpopeirns, 
and to Maleciabrudus (in regard to the latter see Clermont- 
Ganneau, Rec. d’archéol. or., VIII, 1907, p. 52). Cf. my article 
“Syria Dea” in Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, Diction. des anti- 
quités gr. et rom., IQII. 

11. I have said a few words on this colonization in my Mon. 
rel. aux myst. de Mithra, I, p. 262. Courajod has considered 
it in regard to artistic influences, Legons du Louvre, I, 1899, 
pp. 115, 327 ff. For the Merovingian period see Bréhier, “Les 
colonies d’orientaux en Occident au commencement du moyen 
Gge (Byzant. Zeitschr., X11), 1903, pp. 1 ff. 


12. Kaibel, Inscr. gr., XIV, 2540. 


13. Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1899, p. 353 = Waltzing, 
Corporations professionelles, II, No. 1961 = CIL, IIIS., 


NOTES—SYRIA. 243 


14165°.—Inscription of Thaim of Canatha: Kaibel, Jnscr. gr., 
XIV, 2532. 

14. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Fr., VIII, 1—On the diffusion 
of the Syrians in Gaul, see Bréhier, loc. cit., p. 16 ff 


15. Cf. Bréhier, Les origines du crucifix dans l'art religieux, 
Paris, 1904. 

16. Adonis: Wissowa, p. 300, n. 1.—Balmarcodés: Pauly- 
Wissowa, Fealenc., s. v.; Jalabert, Mél. fac. orient. Beyrouth, 
I, p. 182.—Marnas: The existence at Ostia of a “Marneum” 
can be deduced from the dedication CIG, 5892 (cf. Drexler in 
Roscher, Lexikon, s. v., col. 2382).—On Maleciabrudus, cf. 
supra, n. 10—The Maiuma festival was probably introduced 
with the cult of the god of Gaza, Lydus, De Mensib., IV, 80 
(p. 133, Wiinsch ed.) = Suidas s. v. Matovuas and Drexler, 
loc. cit., col. 2287. Cf. Clermont-Ganneau, Rec. d’archéol. 
ortent., IV, p. 339. 


17. Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. “Damascenus, Dusares.” 


18. Malalas, XI, p. 280, 12 (Bonn).—The temple has re- 
cently been excavated by a German mission; cf. Puchstein, 
Fiihrer in Baalbek, Berlin, 1905.—On the Hadad at Rome, cf. 
supra, n. 10. 


19. CIL, X, 1634: “Cultores Iovis Heliopolitani Berytenses 
qui Puteolis consistunt”; cf. Wissowa, loc. cit., p. 504, n. 3; 
Ch. Dubois, Pouzzoles antique, Paris, 1906, p. 156. 


20. A list of the known military societies has been made by 
Cichorius in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., s. v. “Ala” and 
“Cohors.”’ 


21. CIL, VII, 759 = Buecheler, Carmina epigr., 24. Two 
inscriptions dedicated to the Syrian Hercules (Melkarth) and 
to Astarte have been discovered at Corbridge, near New- 
castle (Jnscr. gr., XIV, 2553). It is possible that Tyrian 
archers were cantoned there. 

22. Baltis: Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclop., s. v. 

23. Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s. v. “Aziz”; cf. Wissowa, op. 
OL Osos: 

24. On the etymology of Malakbel, see Dussaud, Notes, 24 ff. 
On the religion in the Occident see Edu. Meyer in Roscher, 
Lexikon, s. v. 


244 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


25. Kan, De Iovis Dolicheni cultu, Groningen, 1901; cf. 
Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., s. v. “Dolichenus.” 


26. Réville, Relig. sous les Sévéres, pp. 237 ff.; Wissowa, op. 
cit., p. 305; cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. “Elagabal.”—In a recent 
article (Die politische Bedeutung der Religion von Emesa 
[Archiv fir Religionsw., XI], 1908, pp. 223 ff.) M. von Do- 
maszewski justly lays stress on the religious value of the 
solar monotheism that arose in the temples of Syria, but he 
attributes too important a part in its formation to the clergy 
of Emesa (see infra, n. 88). The preponderant influence 
seems to have been exercised by Palmyra (see infra, n. 59). 

27. Cf. infra, n. 59. 

28. Cf. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, Chicago, 
1902; Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes du pays de Moab, Paris, 
1908, pp. 2097 ff. 

29. Cf. Robertson Smith, passim; Lagrange, pp. 158-216; 
Vincent, op. cit., pp. 102-123; 144 f.—The power of this Semitic 
litholatry equaled its persistence. Philo of Byblus defined the 
bethels as AlOor Euvvxoe (2, § 20, FHG, III, p. 563): Hip- 
polytus also tells us (V, I, p. 145, Cruice), that in the Syrian 
mysteries (’Agovpiwy rederal) it was taught that the stones 
were animated (of AiOos eloiv éupvyot Eyovot yap TO avfyrixédr), 
and the same doctrine perpetuated itself in Manicheism. (Titus 
of Bostra, II, 60, p. 60, 25, de Lagarde ed.: 

OvK aloyiverat dé Kal tobe Above EpvyGoha Aéywr Kal Ta TavTAa 
émuya elonyotpevoc). 

During the last years of paganism the neo-Platonists de- 
veloped a superstitious worship of the bethels; see Conybeare, 
Transactions of the Congress of Hist. of Rel., Oxford, 1908, 
p. 177. 

30. Luc., De dea Syria, c. 41. Cf. the inscription of Narnaka 
with the note of Clermont-Ganneau, Etudes d’arch. orient., II, 
p. 163.—For bull worship in Syria cf. Ronzevalle, Mélanges 
fac. orient. Beyrouth, I, 1906, pp. 225, 238; Vincent, op. cit., p. 
169. 

31. Philo Alex., De provid., II, c. 107 (II, 646M.); cf. 
Lucian, De dea Syria, 54. 

32. For instance on Mount Eryx in Sicily (Ael., Nat. Anim., 


NOTES—SYRIA. 245 


IV, 2).—Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s. v. “Dea Syria,” col. 
2242. 


33. Tibullus, I, 7, 17. 


34. Lucian, De dea Syria, 14; 54. Cf. Diodorus, II, 4, 2; 
Ovid, Met., IV, 46; V, 331. 

35. Pauly-Wissowa, loc. cit., col. 2241; W. Robertson Smith, 
p. 175. 

36. The ancient authors frequently alluded to this super- 
stition of the Syrians (the texts have been collected by Sel- 
dense. diss Syris,~ Li C:3,. pp. 208 ff,,..ed.. of. 1672)... ..W. 
Robertson Smith (loc. cit., p. 449), is right in connecting it 
with certain ideas of savages. Like many primitive beliefs, 
this one has continued to the present day. It has been pointed 
out to me that at Sam-Keui, a little west of Doliché, there is 
a pond fed by a spring and well stocked with fish, which one 
is forbidden to take. Near the mosque of Edessa is a large 
pond where catching fish is prohibited. They are considered 
sacred, and the people believe that any one who would eat 
them would die instantly. (Sachau, Rese in Syrien, 1883, 
pp. 190 ff. Cf. Lord Warkworth, Diary in Asiatic Turkey, 
London, 1898, p. 242). The same is the case at the mosque oi 
Tripoli and elsewhere (Lammens, Au pays des Nosairis [Revue 
de lOrient chrétien], 1908, p. 2). Even in Asia Minor this 
superstition is found. At Tavshanli, north of Aezani on the 
upper Rhyndacus, there is to-day a square cistern filled with 
sacred fish which no one is allowed to take (on the authority 
of Munro). Travelers in Turkey have frequently observed 
that the people do not eat fish, even when there is a scarcity 
of food (Sachau, loc. cit., p. 196) and the general belief that 
their flesh is unhealthful and can cause sickness is not en- 
tirely unfounded. Here is what Ramsay has to say on the 
subject (Impressions of Turkey, London, 1897, p. 288): “Fish 
are rarely found and when found are usually bad: the natives 
have a prejudice against fish, and my own experience has 
been unfavorable....In the clear sparkling mountain stream 
that flows through the Taurus by Bozanti-Khan, a small 
kind of fish is caught; I had a most violent attack of sickness 
in 1891 after eating some of them, and so had all who par- 
took.” Captain Wilson, who spent a number of years in 


246 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Asia Minor, asserts (Handbook of Asia-Minor, p. 19), that 
“the natives do not eat fish to any extent.’ The “totemic” 
prohibition in this instance really seems to have a hygienic 
origin. People abstained from all kinds of fish because some 
species were dangerous, that is to say, inhabited by evil spirits, 
and the tumors sent by the Syrian goddess were merely the 
edemas caused by the poisoning. 


37. On the "Ix@’s symbolism I will merely refer to Usener, 
Sintfutsagen, 1899, pp. 223 ff. Cf. S. Reinach, Cultes, mythes, 
III, 1908, pp. 43 ff. An exhaustive book on this subject has 
recently appeared: Dolger, IXOT2Z, das Fischsymbol in frih- 
christlicher Zeit, I, Rome, IQI0. 

On sacred repasts where fish was eaten see Mnaseas, 
fragment 32 (Fragm. histor. graec., III, 115); cf. Ditten- 
berger, Sylloge, 584: "Eav dé ti¢ Tov ixbiwy arobdvyn, Kaprotvobw 
avOjuepov éxi tov Bwowov, and Diog. Laert., VIII, 34. There 
were also sacred repasts in the Occident in the various Syrian 
cults: Cenatorium et tricinium in the temples of Jupiter Doli- 
chenus (CI/L, III, 4789; VI, 30031; XI, 696, cf. Mon. myst. 
Mithra, Il, p. 501); promulsidaria et mantelium offered to 
the Venus Caelestis (CIL, X, 1590) ; construction of a temple 
to Malachbel with a culina (CIL, III, 7954). Mention is made 
of a decmvoxpity¢, deimvorg Kpeivag TOAAa pet’ evopoobvyc, in the 
temple of the Janiculum (Gauckler, C. R. Acad. Inscr., 1907, 
p. 142; Bolletino communale, 1907, pp. 15 ff.). Cf. Lagrange, 
Religions sémitiques, II, p. 609, and Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., 
s. v. “Gad.” 


38. W. Robertson Smith, pp. 202 ff. 


39. An inscription discovered at Kefr-Hauar rare Bull. 
corr. hell., 1897, p. 60) is very characteristic in this respect. 
A “slave” of the Syrian goddess in that inscription offers his 
homage to his “mistress” («vpia), 

40. Notably at Aphaca where they were not suppressed until 
the time of Constantine (Eusebius, Vit. Const., III, 55; cf. 
Sozom., II, 5). 


41. Much has been written about the sacred prostitutions in 
paganism, and it is well known that Voltaire ridiculed the 
scholars who were credulous enough to believe in the tales 
of Herodotus. But this practice has been proven by irre- 


NOTES—SYRIA. 247 


futable testimony. Strabo, for instance, whose great-uncle 
was arch-priest of Comana, mentions it in connection with 
that city, (XII, 3, 36, p. 559 C), and he manifests no surprise. 
The history of religion teaches many stranger facts; this one, 
however, is disconcerting. The attempt has been made to see 
in it a relic of the primitive promiscuity or polyandry, or a 
persistence of “sexual hospitality,’ (“No custom is more 
widely spread than the providing for a guest a female com- 
panion, who is usually a wife or daughter of the host,” says 
Wake, Serpent Worship, 1888, p. 158); or the substitution 
of union with a man for union with the god (Gruppe, Griech. 
Mythol., p. 915). But these hypotheses do not explain the 
peculiarities of the religious custom as it is described by more 
reliable authors. They insist upon the fact that the girls 
were dedicated to the temple service while virgins, and that 
after having had strangers for lovers, they married in their 
own country. Thus Strabo (XI, 14, § 16, p. 532C.) narrates 
in connection with the temple of Anaitis in Acilisena, that 
Avyatépac of éxipavéotartot Tov Ebvove aviepovor Tapbévove, aic vdmog EoTt 
kataropvevieioats ToAvY ypdvov Tapa TH Ge@ peta TaiTa didoofa mpd¢ 
yapov, ovk araziovvto¢g TH TovabTy ovvorkeiv ovdevdc. Herodotus (I, 
93), who relates about the same thing of the Lydian women, 
adds that they acquired a dowry in that manner; an inscription 
at Tralles (Bull. corr. hell., VII, 1885, p. 276) actually men- 
tions a descendant of a sacred prostitute (€k mpoyévwy mwaddaki- 
dwv) who had temporarily filled the same office (wa\d\akevoaca 
kara xpyopov Aci), Even at Thebes in Egypt there existed a 
similar custom with striking local peculiarities in the time of 
Strabo (XVII, 1, § 46), and traces of it seem to have been 
found in Greece among the Locrians (Vurtheim, De Aiacis 
origine, Leyden, 1907). Every Algerian traveler knows how 
the girls of the Ouled-Nail earn their dowry in the ksours and 
the cities, before they go back to their tribes to marry, and 
Doutté (Notes sur l’Islam maghrébien, les Marabouts, Extr. 
Rev. hist. des relig., XL-XLI, Paris, 1900), has connected these 
usages with the old Semitic prostitution, but his thesis has 
been attacked and the historical circumstances of the arrival 
of the Ouled-Nail in Algeria in the eleventh century render 
it very doubtful (Note by Basset).—It seems certain (I do 
not know whether this explanation has ever been offered) 


248 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 

that this strange practice is a modified utilitarian form of an 
ancient exogamy. Besides it had certain favorable results, 
since it protected the girl against the brutality of her kindred 
until she was of marriageable age, and this fact must have 
insured its persistence; but the idea that inspired it at first 
was different. “La premiére union sexuelle impliquant une 
effusion de sang, a été interdite, lorsque ce sang était celui 
dune fille du clan versé par le fait d’un homme du clan” 
(Salomon Reinach, Mythes, cultes, I, 1905, p. 79. Cf. Lang, 
The Secret of the Totem, London, 1905.) Thence rose the 
obligation on virgins to yield to a stranger first. Only then 
were they permitted to marry a man of their own race. 
Furthermore, various means were resorted to in order to save 
the husband from the defilement which might result from that 
act (see for inst., Reinach, Mythes, cultes, I, p. 118).—The 
opinion expressed in this note was attacked, almost imme- 
diately after its publication, by Frazer (Adonis, Atiis, Osiris, 
1907, pp. 50 ff.) who preferred to see in the sacred prostitu- 
‘tions a relic of primitive communism. But at least one of 
the arguments which he uses against our views is incorrect. 
Not the women, but the men, received presents in Acilisena 
(Strabo, loc. cit.) and the communistic theory does not seem 
to account for the details of the custom prevailing in the 
temple of Thebes. There the horror of blood clearly appears. 
On the discovery of a skull (having served at a rite of con- 
secration) in the temple of the Janiculum, see the article cited 
above, “Dea Syria,” in Dict. des antiquités. 


42. Porphyry, De Abstin., II, 56; Tertull., Apol, 9. Cf. La- 
grange, op. cit., p. 445. 

43. Even in the regions where the cities developed, the 
Baal and the Baalat always remained the divinities todsovxor, 
the protectors of the city which they were supposed to have 
founded. 

44. Le Bas-Waddington, 2196.—Suidas, s. v. Pvddpxns (II, 
2, col. 1568, Bernhardy). Cf. Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, 
I, p. 405, 409. | 

45. Hippolytus, Adv. Haeres., V, 11, §7: ’Agoupiwy rederal ; 
§ 18: "Agovpiwy pvorhpia (pp. 145, 148, ed. by Cruice). Cf. Ori- 
gen, Contra Celsum, I, 12. Pognon (Inscrip. sémitiques, 


NOTES—-SYRIA. 249 


1907, No. 48) has recently published a Syrian epitaph that is 
unfortunately mutilated, but which seems to be that of an 
adept of the pagan mysteries; see Noldeke, Zeitschrift fir 
ASSYT I, NLL TO07,.P.' 155. 


46. On the Semitic notion of purity, W. Robertson Smith 
has written admirably and convincingly (pp. 446 ff. and pas- 
sim). The question has been taken up from a different point 
of view by Lagrange, pp. 141 ff—The development of the 
notion of purity in the ancient religions has been recently 
expounded by Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, 1905, pp. 
88 ff., especially pp. 124 ff. Cf. also supra, p. 91 f. An exam- 
ple of the prohibitions and purifications is found in the Occi- 
dent in an inscription, unfortunately mutilated, discovered at 
Rome and dedicated to Beellefarus (CJL, V1, 30934, 31168; cf. 
Lafaye, Rev. hist. relig., XVII, 1888, pp. 218 ff.; Dessau, Jnscr. 
sel., 4343). If I have understood the text correctly it com- 
mands those. who have eaten pork to purify themselves by 
means of honey.—On penances in the Syrian religions see 
chy. LE. n...31, 


47. M. Clermont-Ganneau (Etudes d’archéologie orientale, 
II, 1896, p. 104) states that the epithet ayos is extremely rare 
in pagan Hellenism, and almost always betrays a Semitic in- 
fluence. In such cases it corresponds to WP, which to the 
Semites is the epithet par excellence of the divinity. Thus 
Eshmon is Up; cf. Lidzbarski, Ephemer. fiir semit. Epigraph., 
II, p. 155; Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d’archéol. orient., II, 
p. 330; V, p. 322—In Greek Le Bas-Waddington, 2720, has: 
Ol Karoxot ayiov ovpaviov Ads, Dittenberger, Orientis inscript., 
620, Zeds dywos Beedk Bwowpos. Some time ago I copied at a 
dealer’s, a dedication engraved upon a lamp: Oc«@ ayiw ’Aped- 
géhw, in Latin: J. Dolichenus sanctus, CIL, VI, 413, X, 7949. 
—J. Heliopolitanus sanctissimus, CIL, VIII, 2627.—“Caelestis 
sancta,” VIII, 8433, etc—The African Saturn (= Baal) is 
often called sanctus——Hera sancta beside Jupiter Dolichenus, 
VI, 413.—Malakbel is translated by Sol sanctissimus, in the 
bilingual inscription of the Capitol, VI, 710 = Dessau, 4337. 
Cf. deus sanctus acternus, V, 1058, 3761, and Comptes Rendus 
Acad. Inscr., 1906, p. 69.—See in general Delehaye, Analecta 
Bollandiana, 1909, pp. 157 ff, 


250 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


48. As curious examples of Greco-Syrian syncretism we 
may mention the bas-relief of Ed-Douwair in the Louvre, 
which has been analyzed in detail by Dussaud (Notes, pp. 
89 ff.), and especially that of Homs in the Brussels museum 
(1bid., 104 ff.). 

49. Macrobius, I, 23, § 11: “Ritu Assyrio magis quam 
Aegyptio colitur”; cf. Lucian, De dea Syria, 5.—‘“Hermetic” 
theories penetrated even to the Sabians of Osrhoene (Reitzen- 
stein, Poimandres, 166 ff.), although their influence seems to 
have been merely superficial (Bousset, Gottingische gelehrt. 
Anzeigen, 1905, 704 ff.—The existence of Karoxor at Baetocécé 
and elsewhere appears to be due to Egyptian influence (Jala- 
bert, Mélanges de la fac. orient. de Beyrouth, II, 1907, pp. 308 
ff.). The meaning of Karoxos which has been interpreted in 
different ways, is established, I think, by the passages collected 
by Kroll, Cat. codd. astrol. graec., V, pars 2, p. 146; cf. Otto, 
Priester und Tempel, I, p. 119; Bouché-Leclercq, Hist. des 
Lagides, IV, p. 335. It refers to the poor, the sick and even 
the “illumined” living within the temple enclosures and un- 
doubtedly supported by the clergy, as were the refugees of the 
Christian period who availed themselves of the right of sanc- 
tuary in the churches (cf. Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1907, 
Pp. 454). 

50. Cf. infra, n. 59. 

51. Strabo, XVI, 1, 6. Cf. Pliny, H. N., VI, 6: “Durat adhuc 
ibi Iovis Beli templum.”..Cf. my Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 
35 ff.; Chapot, Mém. soc. antig. de France, 1902, pp. 239 ff.; 
Gruppe, Griech. Mythol., p. 1608, n. I. 


52. Lucian, De dea Syria, c. 10. 
53. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte, I, pp. 233 ff. and passim. 


54. On the worship of Bel in Syria cf. Comptes Rendus 
Acad. Inscr., 1907, pp. 447 ff—Cf. infra, n. 59. 


55. On the Heliopolitan triad and the addition of Mercury to 
the original couple see Perdrizet, Rev. études anc., III, 1901, 
p. 258; Dussaud, Notes, p. 24; Jalabert, Mélanges fac. orient. 
de Bayrouth, I, 1906, pp. 175 ff—Triad of Hierapolis: Lucian, 
De dea Syria, c. 33. According to Dussaud, the three divin- 
ities came from Babylon together, Notes, p. 115.—The exist- 
ence of a Pheenician triad (Baal, Astarte, Eshmoun or Mel- 


NOTES—SYRIA. 251 


karth), and of a Palmyrian triad has been conjectured but 
without sufficient reason (ibid., 170, 172 ff.) ; the existence of 
Carthaginian triads is more probable (cf. Polybius, VII, 9, 
11, and von Baudissin, Jolaos [Philothesta fiir Paul Kleinert], 
1907, pp. 5 ff.—See in general Usener, Dreiheit (Extr. Rhein. 
Museum, LVIII), 1903, p. 32. The triads continued in the 
theology of the “Chaldaic Oracles’ (Kroll, De orac. Chald., 
13 ff.) and a threefold division of the world and the soul was 
taught in the “Assyrian mysteries” (Archiv fiir Religionswiss., 
IX, 1906, p. 331, n. I). 

56. Boll, Sphaera, p. 372—The introduction of astrology into 
Egypt seems to date back no further than the time of the 
Ptolemies. 

57. The Seleucides, like the Roman emperors later, believed 
in Chaldean astrology (Appian., Syr., 28; Diodorus, II, 31, 2; 
cf. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s. v. “Astrologie,”’ col. 
1814), and the kings of Commagene, as well as of a great 
number of Syrian cities, had the signs of the zodiac as em- 
blems on their coins. It is even certain that this pseudo- 
science penetrated into those regions long before the Hellen- 
istic period. Traces of it are found in the Old Testament 
(Schiaparelli; translation by Ltidke, Die Astron. im Alten 
Testament, 1904, p. 46). It modified the entire Semitic pagan- 
ism. The only cult which we know in any detail, that of the 
Sabians, assigned the highest importance to it; but in the 
myths and doctrines of the others its influence is no less ap- 
parent (Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., s. v. “Dea Syria,” IV, 
col. 2241, and s. v. “Gad”; cf. Baudissin, Realencycl. fiir prot. 
Theol., s. v., “Sonne,” pp. 510-520). To what extent, for 
instance, the clergy of Emesa had been subjected to its ascend- 
ency is shown by the novel of Heliodorus, written by a priest 
of that city (Rohde, Griech. Roman’, p. 464 [436]), and by 
the horoscope that put Julia Domna upon the throne (Vita 
Severt, 3, 8; cf. A. von Domaszewski, Archiv fiir Religionsw., 
XI, 1908, p. 223). The irresistible influence extended even to 
the Arabian paganism (Noldeke in Hastings, Encyclop. of 
Religion, s. v. “Arabs,” I, p. 661; compare, Orac. Sibyll., XIII, 
64 ff., on Bostra). The sidereal character which has been at- 
tributed to the Syrian gods, was borrowed, but none the less 
real. From very early times the Semites worshiped the sun, 


252 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


the moon, and the stars (see Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi. 25), 
especially the planet Venus, but this cult was of secondary 
importance only (see W. Robertson Smith, op. cit., p. 135, n. 
1), although it grew in proportion as the Babylonian influence 
became stronger. The polemics of the Fathers of the Syrian 
Church show how considerable its prestige was in the Chris- 
tian era (cf. Ephrem, Opera Syriaca, Rome, 1740, II, pp. 
447 ff.; the “Assyrian” Tatian, c. 9 ff., etc.). 

58. Humann and Puchstein, Reise in Klein-Asien und Nord- 
Syrien, 1890, pl. XL; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 188, fig. 8; 
Bouché-Leclercq, Astrol. gr., p. 430. 

59. Cf. Wissowa, op. cit., p. 306-7——On the temple of Bel 
at Palmyra, cf. Sobernheim, Palmyrenische Inschriften (Mitt. 
der vorderasiat. Gesellsch., X), 1905, pp. 319 ff.; Lidzbarski, 
Ephemeris, I, pp. 255 ff., II, p. 280.—Priests of Bel: Clermont- 
Ganneau, Recueil darch. orient., VII, p. 12, 24, 364. Cf. supra, 
n. 54. The power of Palmyra under Zenobia, who ruled from 
the Tigris to the Nile, must have had as a corollary the 
establishment of an official worship that was necessarily syn- 
cretic. Hence its special importance for the history of pagan- 
ism. Although the Babylonian astrology was a powerful fac- 
tor in this worship, Judaism seems to have had just as great 
an influence in its formation. There was at Palmyra a large 
Jewish colony, which the writers of the Talmud considered 
only tolerably orthodox (Chaps, Gli Ebrei di Palmira [Rivista 
Israelitica, 1], Florence, 1904, pp. 171 ff., 238 f. Cf. “Palmyra” 
in the Jewish Encycl.; Jewish insc. of Palmyra; Euting, Sitzb. 
Berl. ‘Acad., 1885, p. 669; Landauer, zbid., 1884, pp. 933 ff.). 
This colony seems to have made compromises with the idol- 
aters. On the other hand we see Zenobia herself rebuilding 
a synagogue in Egypt (Revue archéologique, XXX, 1875, p. 
111; Zeitschrift fir Numismatik, V, p. 229; Dittenberger, 
Orientis inscript., 729). This influence of Judaism seems to 
explain the development at Palmyra of the cult of Zebs tyros 
kal érnkoos, “he whose name is blessed in eternity.” The name 
of Hypsistos has been applied everywhere to Jehovah and to 
the pagan Zeus (supra, p. 62, 128) at the same time. The text 
of Zosimus (I, 61), according to which Aurelian brought from 
Palmyra to Rome the statues of “HAlov re kal Bydov (this has 
been wrongly changed to read rot kat Bydov), proves that the 


ra 


NOTES—SYRIA. 253 


astrological religion of the great desert city recognized a 
supreme god residing in the highest heavens, and a solar god, 
his visible image and agent, according to the Semitic theology 
of the last period of paganism (supra, p. 134). 


60. I have spoken of this solar eschatology in the memorial 
cited infra, n. 88. 

61. This opinion is that of Posidonius (see Wendland, Philos 
Schrift tiber die Vorsehung, Berlin, 1892, p. 68, n. 1; 70, n. 2). 
It is shared by the ancient astrologers. 

62. This old pagan and gnostic idea has continued to the 
present day in Syria among the Hosairis; cf. Dussaud, His- 
toire et religion des Nosairis, 1900, p. 125. 


63. The belief that pious souls are guided to heaven by a 
psychopompus, is found not only in the mysteries of Mithra 
(Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 310), but also in the Syrian cults 
where that réle was often assigned to the solar god, see Isid. 
Lévy, Cultes syriens dans le Talmud (Revue des études juives, 
XLIII), 1901, p. 5, and Dussaud, Notes, p. 27; cf. the Le Bas- 
Waddington inscription, 2442: 

“Baowevd déorota (=thesun), tAabe nal didov raow piv byinv 
kabapav, mphsic dyabac Kat Biov tédog éobAdy."'— 

The same idea is found in inscriptions in the Occident; as 
for instance in the peculiar epitaph of a sailor who died at 
Marseilles (Kaibel, Inscr. gr., XIV, 2462 = Epigr., 650): 

‘Ky dé [re] rePvecoiow dunybpi[éc] ye méAovow 
dotat + Tov Erépy pév EriyOovin wepdpyTat, 
n 0 étépyn teipecot ovv allepiowce yopetet, 
NC OTpaTLAg el eit, Aayov Oedv Hyepovia.” 

It is the same term that Julian used (Césars, p. 336°C) in 
speaking of Mithra, the guide of souls: Fyeudva Oedv, Cf. also 
infra, n. 66 and ch. VIII, n. 24. 


64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls re- 
turned to heaven by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has 
been maintained by Anz (Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des 
Gnostizismus, 1897; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I. pp. 38 ff., p: 3093 
Bousset, Die Himmelsreise der Scele [Archiv fiir Religionsw., 
ITV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and “Gnosis” in Pauly-Wissowa, Real- 
encyclopddie, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzen- 
stein (Poimandres, p. 79; cf. Kroll, Berl. philol. Wochensch., 


254 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


1906, p. 486). But although it may have been given its pre- 
cise shape and been transformed by the Greeks and even by 
the Egyptians, I persist in believing that it is of Chaldean 
and religious origin. I heartily agree with the conclusions 
recently formulated by Bousset, (Géttingische gelehrte An- 
seigen, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots 
it may have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aris- 
toph., Pax, 832, Plato, Tim., 42B, cf. Haussoullier, Rev. de philol., 
1909, pp. I ff.), whatever traces of it may be found in other 
nations (Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, pp. 182 ff.; Nekyia, p. 24, 
note; Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 131, n.3), the idea itself of the soul 
rising to the divine stars after death certainly developed under 
the influence of the sidereal worship of the Semites to a point 
where it dominated all other eschatological theories. The 
belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the belief in 
the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give 
the history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves 
to brief observations. The first account of this system ever 
given at Rome is found in “Scipio’s Dream” (c. 3); it prob- 
ably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea (cf. Wendland, Die 
hellenistisch-rémische Kultur, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168, n. 1), and 
is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The 
same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (1, 
758; IV, 404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus 
(Bell. Judaic., V, 1, 5, § 47) is also much more religious than 
philosophical and is strikingly similar to a dogma of Islam 
(happiness in store for those dying in battle; a Syrian [ibid., 
§ 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven). This 
recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, 
Recueil, No. 735, 1. 40): 

Lapa mpo¢ ovpaviovg Ardg ’Qpouaodov Opdvore BeogiAy puyxnv rporép- 
way el¢ TOV aTrElpov AiOva KoLACETAL. 

It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not orig- 
inally common to all men; it was reserved “omnibus qui patriam 
conservaverint adiuverint, auxerint” (Somn. Scip.c. 3, c.8; cf. 
Manil., I, 758; Lucan, Phars., IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, op. cit., 
p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in conformity with the oldest 
Oriental traditions. The rites first used to assure immortality 
to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were ex- 
tended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important 


NOTES—SYRIA. 255 


persons of the state, and only very much later were they 
applied to all who died. 

Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning 
of the first century of our era, see Diels, Elementum, 1899, p. 
73, cf. 78; Badsttibner, Beitrage zur Erklarung Senecas, Ham- 
burg, pp. 2ff.—It is expressed in many inscriptions (Fried- 
lander, Sitteng., III, pp. 749 ff.; Rohde, Psyche, p. 673, cf. 610; 
epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, Studia Pontica, No. 85; CIL. III (Sa- 
lone), 6384; supra, n.63, etc.) It gained access into Judaism 
and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des 
Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, p.271, and, for Philo of 
Alexandria, Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 397 and p. 207). 
—During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius 
Labeo, the source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, De 
Cornelio Labeone [Diss. Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was 
generally accepted towards the end of the empire; see infra, 
n. 25.—I hope soon to have the opportunity of setting forth 
the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater pre- 
cision in my lectures on “Astrology and Religion in Antiquity” 
which will appear in 1912 (chap. VI). 


65. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the 
Elysian Fields were in the under-world (Apul., Metam., XI, 
6).—According to the astrological theory, the Elysian Fields 
were in the sphere of the fixed stars (Macrobius, Comm. 
somn. Scip., 1, 11, §8; cf. infra, chap. VIII, n. 25). Others 
placed them in the moon (Servius, Ad Aen., VI, 887; cf. 
Norden, Vergils Buch VI, p. 23; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 609 ff.). 
Iamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus, 
De mens., IV, 149, p. 167, 23, Winsch). 


66. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the 
alleged account of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes 
Laertius took from Alexander Polyhistor, and which is in 
reality an apocryphal composition of the first century of our 
era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after 
their separation from the body, els rov “Yyuoroy (Diog. Laert., 
VIII, §31; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 106, n. 2). 
—On the meaning of Hypsistos, cf. supra, p. 128. It appears 
very plainly in the passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by 
the Septuagint: 


256 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


Ki¢ tov obpavoy avabjoopat, érave tov aorépwv Onow Tov Opdvov pov... 
Ecouat buowog TO ‘Ypiorw. 


67. Originally he was the thunder-god, in Greek Kepaurds, 
Under this name he appeared for instance on the bas-relief 
preserved in the museum of Brussels (Dussaud, Notes, p. 105). 
Later, by a familiar process, the influence of a particular god 
becomes the attribute of a greater divinity, and we speak of 
a Zevs Kepatvios (cf. Usener, Keraunos, Rhein. Museum, N.F., 
LX, 1901).—This Zeus Keraunios appears in many inscriptions 
of Syria (CIG, 4501, 4520; Le Bas-Waddington, 2195, 25574, 
2631, 2739; cf. Roscher, Lexikon Myth., s. v. “Keraunos”). 

He is the god to whom Seleucus sacrificed when founding 
Seleucia (Malalas, p. 199), and a dedication to the same god 
has been found recently in the temple of the Syrian divinities 
at Rome (supra, n. 10).—An equivalent of the Zeus Kerau- 
nios is the Zeus Karat8arns—“he who descends in the light- 
ning”’—worshiped at Cyrrhus (Wroth, Greek Coins in the 
British Museum: “Galatia, Syria,” p. 52 and LII; Roscher, 
Lexikon, s. v.) 


68. For instance the double ax was carried by Jupiter Doli- 
chenus (cf. supra, p. 147). On its significance, cf. Usener, 
loc. cit., p. 20. 


69. Cf. Lidzbarski, Balsamem, Ephem. semtt. Epigr., I, p. 
251.—Ba’al Samain is mentioned as early as the ninth century 
B. C. in the inscription of Ben Hadad (Pognon, Iuscr. sémit., 
1907, pp. 165 ff.; cf. Dussaud, Rev. archéol., 1908, I, p. 235). 
In Aramaic papyri preserved at Berlin, the Jews of Elephan- 
tine call Jehovah “the god of heaven” in an address to a 
Persian governor, and the same name was used in the alleged 
edicts of Cyrus and his successors, which were inserted in 
the book of Esdras (i. I; vi. 9, etc.)—If there were the 
slightest doubt as to the identity of the god of thunder with 
Baalsamin, it would be dispelled by the inscription of Et- 
Tayibé, where this Semitic name is translated into Greek as 
Zevs wéyioros Kepavyics; cf, Lidzbarski, Handbuch, p. 477, and 
Lagrange, op. cit., p. 508. | 

70. On the worship of Baalsamin, confused with Ahura- 
Mazda and transformed into Caelus, see. Mon. myst. Mithra, 
p. 87—The texts attesting the existence of a real cult of 


NOTES—SYRIA. 257 


heaven among the Semites are very numerous. Besides the 
ones I have gathered (Joc. cit., n. 5); see Conybeare, Philo 
about the Contemplative Life, p. 33, n. 16; Kayser, Das Buch 
der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, 1893, p. 337, and infra, n. 75. 
Zeus Ovpdvics: Le Bas-Waddington, 2720a (Baal of Bétocécé) ; 
Renan, Mission de Phénicie, p. 103.—Cf. Archiv fiir Religions- 
wissenschaft, IX, 1906, p. 333. 

71. Coins of Antiochus VIII Grypus (125-96 B. C.); Babe- 
lon, Rots de Syrie, d Arménie, 1890, p. CLIV, pp. 178 ff. 

72. All these qualities ascribed to the Baals by astrological 
paganism (tjiocros, wavroxpdrwp, etc.), are also the attributes 
which, according to the doctrine of Alexandrian Judaism, 
characterized Jehovah (see supra, n. 66). If he was originally 
a god of thunder, as has been maintained, the evolution of 
the Jewish theclogy was parallel to that of the pagan con- 
ceptions (see supra, n. 60). 

73. On this subject cf. Jupiter summus exsuperantissimus 
(Archiv f. Religionsw., 1X), 1906, pp. 326 ff. 

74. Ps.-lamblichus, De mysteriis, VI, 7 (cf. Porph., Epzst. 
Aneb., c. 29), notes this difference between the two religions. 

75. Apul, oMetieV Why 25.4. Ch CLE, IET,9'1000 3) 11,1227 
(= Dessau, 2998, 4333) ; Macrobius, Comm. somn. Scipionis, 
I, 14, §2: “Nihil aliud esse deum nisi caelum ipsum et cae- 
lestia ipsa quae cernimus, ideo ut summi omnipotentiam dei 
ostenderet posse vix intellegi.”—‘HXwos wayroxpdrws: Macrob., 
123,221; 


76. Diodorus, II, 30: XaAdaioe tiv tov Kécpov dbo diddy gaorv 
elvat K,7T.; cf. Cicero, Nat. deor., II, 20, § 52 ff.; Pliny, H. N., 
II, 8, § 30. The notion of eternity was correlative with that of 
eluapuevn; cf. Ps.-Apul., Asclep., 40; Apul., De deo Socratis, 
c. 2: “(The planets) quae in deflexo cursu....meatus aeter- 
nos divinis vicibus efficiunt.”—This subject will be more fully 
treated in my lectures on “Astrology and Religion” (chaps. 


IV-V). 

77. At Palmyra: De Vogiié, Inscr. sem., pp. 53 ff., etc.—On 
_ the first title, see infra, n. 80. 

78. Note especially CJL, VI, 406 = 30758, where Jupiter 
Dolichenus is called Aeternus conservator totius poli. The 


258 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


relation to heaven here remained apparent. See Somn. Scip., 
LES ASIN, 33. 


79. Cf. Rev. archéol., 1888, I, pp. 184 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa, 
s. v. “Aeternus,’ and Festschrift fiir Otto Benndorf, 1808, 
_p. 291.—The idea of the eternity of the gods also appeared 
very early in Egypt, but it does not seem that the mysteries 
of Isis—in which the death of Osiris was commemorated— 
made it prominent, and it certainly was spread in the Occident 
only by the sidereal cults. 


80. The question has been raised whether the epithet RoSy RID 
means “lord of the world” or “lord of eternity” (cf. Lidz- 
barski, Ephemeris, I, 258; I], 297; Lagrange, p. 508), but in 
our opinion the controversy is to no purpose, since in the 
spirit of the Syrian priests the two ideas are inseparable and 
one expression in itself embraces both, the world being con-. 
ceived as eternal (supra, n. 76). See for Egypt, Horapoll., 
Hieroglyph., I (serpent as symbol of the aiwy and kécyos). 
At Palmyra, too, the title “lord ofall” is found, 59 “7p (Lidz- 
barski, loc. cit.) ; cf. Julian, Or., IV, p. 203, 5 (Hertlein) : "0 
Baoels tev bd\wv “Hoos, and infra, n. 81; n. 87. Already at 
Babylon the title “lord of the universe” was given to Shamash 
and Hadad; see Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens, I, p. 254, n. I0. 
Noldeke has been good enough to write me as follows on this 
subject: “Daran kan kein Zweifel sein, dass pSy zundachst 
(lange Zeit) Ewigkeit heisst, und dass die Bedeutung “Welt’ 
secundar ist. Ich halte es daher fiir so gut wie gewiss dass 
das palmyrenische NDSY NID, wenn es ein alter Name ist, den 
‘ewigen’ Herrn bedeutet, wie ohne Zweifel 'pSiy 5x, Gen., xxi. 
33. Das biblische Hebraisch kennt die Bedeutung ‘Welt’ noch 
nicht, abgesehen wohl von der spaten Stelle, Eccl. iii. 11. Und, 
so viel ich sehe, ist im Palmyrenischen sonst ~»S5Y immer 
‘Ewigkeit,’ z.B. in der haufigen Redensart poSy5 Apw 49725. 
Aber das daneben vorkommende palmyr. 55 7% futhrt aller- 
dings darauf, dass die palmyrenischeInschrift auch in pS5y RD 
den ‘Herrn der Welt’ sah. Ja der syrische Uebersetzer sieht 
auch in jenem hebraischen pS\y Sx ‘den Gott der Welt.’ Das 
Syrische hat namlich einen formalen Unterschied festgestellt 
zwischen ‘além, dem Status absolutus, ‘Ewigkeit,’ und ‘alma 
[alema] dem Status emphaticus ‘Welt.’—Sollte iibrigens die 


NOTES—SYRIA. 259 


Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch Einfluss griechischer 
Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der Zingirli-Inschrift 
bedeuted pSy3 noch bloss ‘in seiner Zeit.’ ” 


81. Cf. CIL, III, 1090 = Dessau, Inscr., 2908: “Divinarum 
humanarumque rerum rectori.” Compare ibid., 2999 and Cag- 
net, Année épigr., 1905, No. 235: “I. O.M.,id est universitatis 
principi.” Cf. the article of the Archiv cited, n. 73. The As- 
clepius says (c. 39), using an astrological term: “Caelestes dii 
catholicorum dominantur, terreni incolunt singula.” 


82. Cf. W. Robertson Smith, 75 ff., passim. In the Syrian 
religions as in that of Mithra, the initiates regarded each 
other as members of the same family, and the phrase “dear 
brethren” as used by our preachers, was already in use among 
the votaries of Jupiter Dolichenus (fratres carissimos, CIL, 
VI, 406 = 30758). 

83. Renan mentioned this fact in his Apotres, p. 2907 = Jour- 
nal Asiatique, 1859, p. 259. Cf. Jalabert, Mél. faculté orient. 
Beyrout, 1, 1906, p. 146. 

84. This is the term (virtutes) used by the pagans. See the 
inscription Numini et virtutibus dei aeterni as reconstructed 
in Revue de Philologie, 1902, p. 9; Archiv fiir Religionsw., loc. 
Cas D.6335. nl andusy ra, cha V LL, :n; 20: 

85. CIL, VII, 759 = Bicheler, Carm. epig., 24—Cf. Lucian, 
De dea Syria, 32. 

86. Macrobius, Sat., I, 23, §17: “Nominis (Adad) interpre- 
tatio significat unus unus.” 


87. Cicero, Somnium Scip., c. 4: “Sol dux et princeps et 
moderator luminum reliquorum, mens mundi et temperatio.” 
Pliny, H. N., Il, 6, §12: “Sol....siderum ipsorum caelique 
rector. Hunc esse mundi totius animam ac planius mentem, 
hunc principale naturae regimen ac numen credere decet,” etc. 
Julian of Laodicea, Cat. codd. astr., I, p. 136, 1. 1: 

"Hiwog Baoirede Kat yye“ov Tob obumavtog Kéonov KabeoTtoc, TavTwY 
kabyyobmevog kai TaVTWY Ov yevectapync. 


88. We are here recapitulating some conclusions of a study 
on La théologie solaire du paganisme romain published in Mé- 
motres des savants étrangers présentés a l Acad. des Inscr., 
XII, 2d part, pp. 447 ff., Paris, 19r0. 


260 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


89. The hymns of Synesius (II, 10 ff., IV, 120 ff., etc.) con- 
tain peculiar examples of the combination of the old astro- 
logical ideas with Christian theology. 


VI. PERSIA. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: We shall not attempt here to give a bibliog- 
raphy of the works devoted to Mazdaism. We shall merely 
refer the reader to that of Lehmann in Chantepie de la Saus- 
saye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, II, p. 150. We should 
mention, in the first place, Darmesteter, Le Zend Avesta, 1892 ff., 
with introductions and commentary.—In my Testes et monu- 
ments relatifs aux mystéres de Mithra (2 vols., 1894-1900), 
I, pp. xx ff., I have furnished a list of the earlier works on 
this subject; the conclusions of the book have been published 
separately without the notes, under the title: Les Mystéres de 
Mithra, (2d ed., Paris and Brussels, 1902; English translation, 
Chicago, 1903). See also the article “Mithra” in the Diction- 
naire des antiquités of Daremberg and Saglio, 1904.—General 
outlines of certain phases of this religion have been since 
given by Grill, Die persische Mysterienreligion und das Chris- 
tentum, 1903; Roeses, Ueber Mithrasdienst, Stralsund, 1905; 
G. Wolff, Ueber Mithrasdienst und Mithreen, Frankfort, 1909; 
Reinach, La morale du mithraisme in Cultes, mythes, II, 1906, 
pp. 220 ff.; Dill, op. cit., pp. 504-626; cf. also Bigg, op. cit. 
[p. 321], 1905, p. 46 ff.; Harnack, Ausbreitung des Christent., 
II, p. 270. Among the learned researches which we cannot 
enumerate here, the most important is that of Albrecht Die- 
terich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, 1903. He has endeavored with 
some ingenuity to show that a mystical passage inserted in 
a magic papyrus preserved at Paris is in reality a fragment 
of a Mithraic liturgy, but here I share the skepticism of 
Reitzenstein (Neue Jahrb. f. das class. Altertum, 1904, p. 
192) and J have given my reasons in Rev. de I’Instr. publ. 
en Belg., XLVII, 1904, pp. 1 ff. Dieterich answered briefly 
in Archiv f. Religionswis., VIII, 1905, p. 502, but without 
convincing me. The author of the passage in question may 
have been more or less accurate in giving his god the ex- 
ternal appearance of Mithra, but he certainly did not know 
the eschatology of the Persian mysteries. We know, for 


NOTES—PERSIA. 261 


instance, through positive testimony that they taught the dogma 
of the passage of the soul through the seven planetary spheres, 
and that Mithra acted as a guide to his votaries in their ascen- 
sion to the realm of the blessed. Neither the former nor the 
latter doctrine, however, is found in the fantastic uranog- 
raphy of the magician. The name of Mithra, as elsewhere 
that of the magi Zoroaster and Hostanes, helped to circulate 
an Egyptian forgery., cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-rémische 
Kultur, 1907, p. 168, n. 1. See on this controversy Wiinsch’s 
notes in the 2d ed. of the Mithrashturgie, 1910, pp. 225 ff—A 
considerable number of new monuments have been published 
of late years (the mithreum of Saalburg by Jacobi, etc.). The 
most important ones are those of the temple of Sidon pre- 
served in the collection of Clercq (De Ridder, Marbres de la 
collection de C., 1906, pp. 52 ff.) and those of Stockstadt pub- 
lished by Drexel (Der obergerm. Limes, XXXIII, Heidelberg, 
1910). In the following notes I shall only mention the works 
or texts which could not be utilized in my earlier researches. 


1. Cf. Petr. Patricius, Excerpta de leg., 12 (II, p. 393, de 
Boor ed.). 


2. Cf. Chapot, Les destinées de Vhellénisme au dela lEu- 
phrate (Mém. soc. antig. de France), 1902, pp. 207 ff. 


3. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire, s. v. 
“Amici,” I, p. 228 (cf. 160). Cf. Friedlander, Sittengesch., I, 
pp. 202 ff. 

4. Cf. L’Eternité des empereurs romains (Rev. d’hist. et de 
litt. relig., 1), 1896, p. 442. 

5. Friedlander (Joc. cit., p. 204) has pointed out several 
instances where Augustus borrowed from his distant prede- 
cessors the custom of keeping a journal of the palace, of edu- 
cating the children of noble families at court, etc. Certain 
public institutions were undoubtedly modeled on them; for 
instance, the organization of the mails (Otto Hirschfeld, Ver- 
waltungsbeamten, p. 190, n. 2; Rostovtzev, Klio, VI, p. 249 
(on angariae); cf. Preisigke, Die Ptolemdische Staatspost 
(Klio, VII, p. 241), that of the secret police (Friedlander, I, 
p. 427).—On the Mazdean Hvareno who became Tvixn Bas- 
Aéws, then Fortuna Augusti, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 284 
ff—Even Mommsen (Rdém. Gesch., V, p. 343), although pre- 


262 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


disposed to look for the continuity of the Roman tradition, 
adds, after setting forth the rules that obtained at the court 
of the Parthians: “Alle Ordnungen die mit wenigen Ab- 
minderungen bei den rdmischen Caesaren wiederkehren und 
vielleicht zum Teil von diesen der alteren Grossherrschaft 
entlehnt sind.”—Cf. also infra, ch. VIII, n. 19. 


6. Friedlander, loc. cit., p. 204; cf. p. 160. 

7. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutestam. Zeit- 
alter, 1903 (2d ed. 1906), pp. 453 ff., passim. 

8. Cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 21 ff. 

9. Cf. infra, ch. VII, pp. 188 ff. 

10. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 9 ff., pp. 231 ff. 


11. Lactantius, De mort., persec., 21, 2; cf. Seeck, Gesch. des 
Untergangs der antiken Welt, Il, pp. 7 ff. 


12. Cf. Strzygowski, Mschatta (Jahrb. preuss. Kunstsamm- 
lungen, XXV), Berlin, 1904, pp. 324 ff., 371 fi—From a com- 
munication made to the Congress of Orientalists at Copen- 
hagen (1908) by Father Lammens, it would appear that the 
facade of Mschatta is the work of an Omaiyad kalif of Damas- 
cus, and Strzygowski’s conclusions would, therefore, have to 
be modified considerably; but the influence of Sassanid art in 
Syria is neverthcless certain; see Dussaud, Les Arabes en 
Syrie avant l’'Islam, 1907, pp. 33, 51 ff. 

13. Cf. infra, n. 32. 

14.Plutarch, V. Pompei, 24: 

evac 68 Ovoiac éOvov adroit Tag Ev ’OAbuT Kai TeAETa¢ TLvag ATopphTove 
- €réovv, Ov 7 TOV MiBpov Kai péxpt dedpo diacdlerat kaTaderyOeica TpOTov 
Un’ Exeivwv. 

15. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., Theb. IV, 717: “Quae sacra 
primum Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Ro- 
mani.” 


16. In the Studia Pontica, p. 368, I have described a grotto 
located near Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but 
now transformed into a church. We know of no other 
Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in Greek and 
Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha 
(Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished 


NOTES—PERSIA. 263 


with excellent notes by Henri Grégoire (Comptes Rendus 
Acad. des Inscr., 1908, pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has 
mentioned no trace of a temple. The text says that a strategus 
from Ariaramneia €uayevce MéOpn. Perhaps these words must 
be translated according to a frequent meaning of the aorist, 
by “became a magus of Mithra” or “began to serve Mithra as 
a magus.” This would lead to the conclusion that the inscrip- 
tion was made on the occasion of an initiation. The magus 
dignity was originally hereditary in the sacred caste; strangers 
could acquire it after the cult had assumed the form of mys- 
teries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the Cap- 
padocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that 
transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiri- 
dates of Armenia initiated Nero; see Mon. myst. Mithra, I, 
p. 230. 

17. Strabo, XI, 14, § 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. 
Grégoire, Saints jumeausx et dieux cavaliers, 1905, pp. 56 ff. 


18. Cf. C. R. Acad. des Inscr., 1905, pp. 99 ff. (note on the 
bilingual inscription of Aghatcha-Kalé); cf. Daremberg- 
Saglio-Pottier, Dict. Antiqu., s. v., “Satrapa.” 


19. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 10, n. 1. The argument un- 
doubtedly dates back to Carneades, see Boll, Studien tiber 
Claudius Ptolemaus, 1894, pp. 181 ff. 


20. Louis H. Gray (Archiv fiir Religionswiss., VII, 1904, 
p. 345) has shown how these six Amshaspands passed from 
being divinities of the material world to the rank of moral 
abstractions. From an important text of Plutarch it appears 
that they already had this quality in Cappadocia; cf. Mon. 
myst. Mithra, II, p. 33, and Philo, Quod omn. prob. lib., 11 CII, 
456 M).—On Persian gods worshiped in Cappadocia, see Mon. 
myst. Mithra, I, p. 132. 

21. See supra, n. 16 and 18—According to Grégoire, the 
bilingual inscription of Farasha dates back to the first cen- 
tury, before or after Christ (loc. cit., p. 445). 

22. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 9, n: 5. 


23. Comparison of the type of Jupiter Dolichenus with the 
bas-reliefs of Boghaz-Keui led Kan (De lovis Dolicheni cultu, 
Groningen, 1901, pp. 3 ff.) to see an Anatolian god in him. 


264 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


The comparison of the formula ubi ferrum nascitur with the 
expression $7ov 6 oldnpos Tikrerat, used in connection with the 
Chalybians, leads to the same conclusion, see Revue de philo- 
logie, XX VI, I9g02, p. 281.—Still, the representations of Jupiter 
Dolichnus also possess a remarkable resemblance to those of 
the Babylonian god Ramman;; cf. Jeremias in Roscher, Lexikon 


der Myth., s. v. “Ramman,” IV, col. 50 ff. 
24. Rev. archéol. 1905, I, p. 189. Cf. supra, p. 373, n. 68. 


25. Herod., I, 131.—On the assimilation of Baalsamin to 
Ahura-Mazda, cf. supra, p. 127, and infra, n. 29. At Rome, 
Jupiter Dolichenus was conservator totius poli et numen prae- 
Stantissimum (CIL, V1, 406 = 30758). 

26. Inscription of King Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, 
Recueil, No. 735), 1. 43: 

IIpd¢ ovpaviove Atdg ’"Qpoudodov Opdvove OeodiAy wuynv mporéupar; 
cf. 1. 33: Otpavioy dyyora Opdver. 


27. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 87. 


28. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 333.—An inscription discovered 
in a mithreum at Dorstadt (Sacidava in Dacia, CJL, III, 7728, 
cf. 7729), furnishes, if I rightly understand, another proof of 
the relation existing between the Semitic cults and that of the 
Persian gods. It speaks of a “de[orum?] sacerdos creatus a 
Pal[myr]enis, do[mo] Macedonia, et adven[tor] huius templi.” 
This rather obscure text becomes clear when compared with 
Apul., Metam., XI, 26. After the hero had been initiated into 
the mysteries of Isis in Greece, he was received at Rome in 
the great temple of the Campus Martius, “fani quidem advena. 
religionis autem indigena.” It appears also that this Mace- 
donian, who was made a priest of their national gods (Bel, 
Malakbel, etc.) by a colony of Palmyrenians, was received in 
Dacia by the mystics of Mithra as a member of their religion. 


29. At Venasa in Cappadocia, for instance, the people, even 
during the Christian period, celebrated a panegyric on a moun- 
tain, where the celestial Zeus, representing Baalsamin and 
Ahura-Mazda, was formerly worshiped (Ramsay, Church in 
the Roman Empire, 1894, pp. 142, 457). The identification of 
Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the Ara- 
maic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil, III, 


NOTES—PERSIA. 265 


p. 50; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris fiir semit. Epigraphik, I, pp. 
59 ff.). The Zeus Stratios worshiped upon a high summit 
near Amasia was in reality Ahura-Mazda, who in turn prob- 
ably supplanted some local god (Studia Pontica, pp. 173 ff.).— 
Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or Cybele for 
the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (Mon. myst. 
Mithra, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet dvtxnros like 
Mithra (Athen. Mitt., XVIII, 1803, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, 
p. 169). A temple of this goddess was called iepov ’Aordprys 
in a decree of Anisa (Michel, Recueil, No. 536, 1. 32). 


30. The Mithra “mysteries” are not of Hellenic origin (Mon. 
myst. Mithra, I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of . 
Greece, which Gruppe insists upon (Griech. Mythologie, pp. 
1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound to become con- 
fused in the Alexandrian period. 


31. Harnack (Ausbreitung des Christentums, II, p. 271) 
sees in this exclusion of the Hellenic world a prime cause of 
the weakness of the Mithra worship in its struggle against 
Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met the Greek culture 
with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects. But 
if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral 
qualities, it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted 
without repugnance by the Occidentals. The same was true 
of Manicheism. 


32. CIL, III, 4413; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 281. 


33. Cf. the bibliography at the head of the notes for this 
chapter. 

34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not ex- 
plain the evils of this world without admitting the existence 
of an “evil soul of the world’ (Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, 
II‘, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late conception, opposed 
as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the influence 
of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller, 
ibid., p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of “Chaldean” theories 
is undeniable; cf. Bidez, Revue de Philologie, XX1X, 1905, p. 
310. 

35. Plutarch, De Iside, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, 
V, p. 188; Eisele, Zur Demonologie des Plutarch (Archiv fiir 
Gesch. der Philos., XVII), 1903, p. 283 £.—Cf. infra, n. 40. 


266 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


36. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some 
exact information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, 
p. 150, 12, Reifferscheid) : “Magi suis in accitionibus memorant 
antitheos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam 
materiis ex crassioribus spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque 
mendaciis et simulationibus ludant.” Lactantius, the pupil of 
Arnobius, used the same word in speaking of Satan that a 
Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (Jnst. divin., 
II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): “Nox quam prave illi antitheo 
dicimus attributam’”; he is the aemulus Deit.—Heliodorus who 
has made use in his Aethiopica of data taken from the Maz- 
dean beliefs (see Monuments relatifs aux mystéres de Mithra, 
volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek word in the same 
sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.) : ‘Avrifed¢ tug éorkev éuro- 
dilew tHv rpasiv.—The Ps.-Iamblichus, De myster., III, 31, § 15, 
likewise speaks of daiuoveg rovynpove ob¢ 67% Kai Kadovoy avrHéovs. 
Finally the magical papyri-also knew of the existence of these 
deceiving spirits (Wessely, Denksch. Akad. Wien, XLII, p. 
42, v. 702: Tléu pov poe tov adanbivov 'AokaAnniov dixa tide avribéov 
mAavodaimovoc). 


37. In a passage to which we shall return in note 39, Por- 
phyry (De Abstin., I, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the 
same terms as Arnobius: T6é yap wevdo¢ tovro¢ vixeiov’ BobAovrat 
yap elvat Oeot kat 7 mpocotHoa avtov divaue doxeiv Oed¢ elvar 6 péytoTog 
(cf. c. 41: Tobrove kai tov tpoeotéra aitov) ; likewise Ps.-Iambli- 
chus, De myst., III, 30,6: Tov péyar gyeudva rov daruévev,.—In the 
De philos. ex orac. haur. (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work 
in which he followed other sources than those in De Absti- 
nentia, Porphyry made Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the 
malevolent demons. There was bound to be a connection 
between the Egyptian god of the underworld and the Ahri- 
man of the Persians at an early date—A veiled allusion to 
this chief of demons may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., 
and Plutarch who, in De Iside, 46, called Ahriman Hades 
(supra, p. 190; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, Il, p. 131, No. 3), says 
elsewhere (De latenter viv., 6, p. 1130) : Tov dé tig évavtiag Kbpiov 
poipac, eite Ocdc elite daiwwv éoriv, “Aidnv dvoudfovoww. Cf, Decharme, 
Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs, 1904, p. 431, n. I. 


38. The dedication Dits angelis recently found at Vimina- 


NOTES—PERSIA. 267 


cium (Jahresh. Instituts in Wien, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a 
country where the Mithra worship had spread considerably 
seems to me to refer to this. See Minuc. Felix, Octav., 26: 
“Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes angelos, id 
est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit assistere.” 
St. Cypr., “Quod idola dii n. s.,” c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel): “Os- 
tanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros 
sedi eius dicit adsistere.” Cf. Tertullian, Apol., XXIII: “Magi 
habentes invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem 
sibi potestatem ;” Arnobius, II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid) ; 
Aug., Civ. Det, X, 9, and the texts collected by Wolff, Por- 
phyri de philos. ex orac. haurtenda, 1856, pp. 223 ff.; Kroll, 
De orac. Chaldaicis, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, Die Hebdomaden- 
lehre der griech. Philosophen, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt, Apu- 
leius und die Zauberei, Giessen, 1909, p. 250. 

39. Porphyry, De Abstin., II, 37-43, expounds a theory about 
the demons, which, he says, he took from “certain Platonists” 
(IIXarwyikot tives, Numenius and Cronius?). That these 
authors, whoever they were, helped themselves freely to the 
doctrines of the magi, seems to appear immediately from the 
whole of Porphyry’s exposition (one could almost give an 
endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean 
books) and in particular from the mention that is made of a 
power commanding the spirits of evil (see supra, n. 37). This 
conclusion is confirmed by a comparison with the passage of 
Arnobius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar theories 
to the “magi,” and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (De 
mystertis, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being 
those of “Chaldean prophets.”—Porphyry also cites a “Chal- 
dean” theologian in connection with the influence of the 
demons, De regressu animae (Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9). 

I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the 
book attributed to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the 
second century of our era by Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian 
(supra, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p. 138; Mon. myst. 
Mithra, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false logic 
to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above 
everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic 
theories of the Greeks (see for instance the communications 
of Messrs. Stock and Glover: Transactions of the Congress of 


268 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


History of Rel., Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence 
of the popular Hellenic or foreign ideas has always been pre- 
ponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains one of the 
oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved supra, n. 
34, was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the an- 
cestors of the djinns and the wélys of Islam. 


If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the 
theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based 
on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, 
we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to 
the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles 
developed is that the gods must not be honored by the sacri- 
fice of animated beings (€¢~vxa), and that immolation of vic- 
tims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is 
found in Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., Civ. Dei, VIII, 13; see 
Arnobius, VII, 24), and possibly it was the practice of the 
Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks in this connection of 
rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and -it is 
known that in the course of its history Mazdaism passed from 
the bloody to the bloodless sacrifice (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, 
pou): 

40. Cf. Plutarch, De defectu orac., 10, p. 415 A: 

’Euoi 6& doxovor wieiovac Avoat aropiac vt T6 TOV daludver yévog Ev péow 
bévreg Oedv kal avOpOrwv Kai Tpdrov TLva THY KoLvwviay YUoV Ovvayov Etc 
tavTo Kat obvartov éebpovtec: elite udywv Tov Tepl. Zwpodorpyv 6 Adyoc¢ 
ovré¢ éort, cite Opa zoe... 


41. Cf. Minucius Felix, 26, § 11: “Hostanes daemonas pro- 
didit terrenos vagos humanitatis inimicos.” The pagan idea, 
that the air was peopled with evil spirits against whom man 
had to strugle perpetually, persisted among the Christians; 
cf. Ephes., ii. 2, vi. 12, see also Prudentius, Hamartigenia, 
514 ff. 

42. Cf. Minucius Felix, loc. cit.: “Magi non solum sciunt 
daemonas, sed quidquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas fa- 
ciunt,” etc. Cf. Aug., Civ. Dei, X,9 and infra, ch. VII, n. 76. 


43. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 130 ff. 


44. Theod. Mopsuest. ap. Photius, Bibl. 81. Cf. Mon. myst. 
Mithra, I, p. 8. 





NOTES—PERSIA. 269 


45. Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. 
Zeitalter, 1903, pp. 483 ff. 
46. Julian, Caesares, p. 336 C. The term évrodal is the one 


also used in the Greek Church for the commandments of the 
Lord. 


47. Cf. supra, p. 36. 

48. The remark is from Darmesteter, Zend-Avesta, II, D. 
441. 

49. Cf. Reinach, op. cit., [260], pp. 230 ff. 

50. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, p. 127. 


51. Mithra is sanctus (Mon. myst. Mithra, Il, p. 533), like 
the Syrian gods; cf. supra, ch. V, n. 47. 

52. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 309 ff. The eschatology of 
orthodox Mazdaism has been expounded recently by Soder- 
blom, La vie future d’aprés le mazdéisme, Paris, I9gol. 


53. Cf. supra, ch. IV, p. 100, ch. V, p. 126. 


54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was 
foreign to the religion of Zoroaster and was_introduced into 
the mysteries of Mithra with the Chaldean astrology. More- 
over, ancient mythological ideas were always mixed with this 
learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental belief 
that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (Mon. 
myst. Mithra, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, Archiv fiir Religionswiss., 
IV, 1901, p. 233, n. 2; Rev. hist. des relig., 1800, p. 243, and 
especially Boklen, Die Verwandtschafi der jiidisch-christlichen 
und der parsischen Eschatologie, Gottingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff. 
Thence arose the notion prevalent to the end of paganism, 
that the soul in passing through the planetary spheres, took 
on the qualities of the stars “like successive tunics.” Por- 
phyry, De abstin., I, 31: ’Amoduréov dpa robs woddobs huiv xiravas 
k, tT. .; Macrobius, Somnium Sc., I, 11, §12: “In singulis 
sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur”; I, 12, §13: “Luminosi 
corporis amicitur accessu”; Proclus, Jn Tim., I, 113, 8, Diehl 
ed.: TepiBddrXeo0ar xiravas; Procl., Opera, Cousin ed., p. 222: 
“Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti 
sumus’”’; Kroll, De orac. Chaldaicis, p. 51, n. 2: Vuxn éooapevn 
vovv; Julian, Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, 
Die hellenistisch-rémische Kultur, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what 


270 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


* Hippolytus, Philos., V, 1, says of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection 
with the Naasenians. She is émrdorodos, because nature also 
is covered with seven ethereal garments, the seven heavens of 
the planets; see Ps.-Apul., Asclepius, 34 (p. 75, 2 Thomas) : 
“Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore 
illo mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta.” I have insisted 
upon the persistence of this idea, because it may help us to 
grasp the significance attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual 
in connection with which Porphyry relates nothing but con- 
tradictory interpretations. The persons initiated into the seven 
degrees were obliged to put on different costumes. The seven 
degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic 
were symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which 
the soul ascended after death (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 316), 
the garments assumed by the initiates were probably con- 
sidered as emblems of those “tunics” which the soul put on 
when descending into the lower realms and discarded on re- 
turning to heaven. 


55. Renan, Marc-Auréle, p. 579. 


56. Anatole France, Le mannequin d’osier, p. 318. Cf. Rei- 
nach, op. cit. [p. 260], p. 232. 


VII. ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bouché-Leclercq’s book L’astrologie grecque 
(Paris, 1899) makes it unnecessary to refer to the earlier 
works of Saumaise (De annts climactericis, 1648), of Seiffarth 
(Beitrage sur Lit. des alten Aegypten, I1, 1883), etc. Most of 
the facts cited by us are taken from that monumental treatise, 
unless otherwise stated—A large number. of new texts has 
been published in the Catalogus codicum astrologorum Grae- 
corum (9 vols. ready, Brussels, 1898).—Franz Boll, Sphaera 
(Leipsic, 1903)is important for the history of the Greek and 
barbarian constellations (see Rev. archéol., 1903, I, p. 437).— 
De la Ville de Mirmont has furnished notes on L’astrologie 
en Gaule au V° siecle (Rev. des Etudes anciennes, 1902, pp. 
115 ff.; 1903, pp. 255 ff.; 1906, p. 128). Also in book form, 
Bordeaux, 1904. The principal results of the latest researches 
have been outlined to perfection by Boll, Die Erforschung der 


NOTES—ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 271 


antiken Astrologie (Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. Altert., XI), 
1908, pp. 104 ff.—For the bibliography of magic, cf. fra, notes, 
58 ff. 

1. Stephan. Byzant. (Cat. codd. astr., II, p. 235), I, 12: 
"Efoxwrdaty kai mdone émiotiune déoxotva. Theophil. Edess., ibid., 
V, 1, p. 184: “Ore racév tymwrépa texvov. Vettius Valens, VI, 
proem. (ibid., V, 2, p. 34, 7 = p: 241, 19, Kroll ed.): Tis yap 
ovK av Kpivar Tatty tiv Bewpiay Tacdv Tpobxely Kai pakaplwTaTyY Try- 
yavery, 

2. Cf. Louis Havet, Revue bleue, Nov., 1905, p. 644. 

3. Ci. supra, p. 146, p. 123. 

4. Kroll, Aus der Gesch. der Astrol. (Neue Jahrb. fiir das 
klass. Altertum, VII), 1901, pp. 508 ff. Cf. Boll, Cat. codd. 
astr., VII, p..130: 

5. The argumentation of Posidonius, placed at the begin- 
ning of the Tetrabiblos, inspired the defense of astrology, and 
it has been drawn upon considerably by authors of widely 
different spirit and tendencies, see Boll, Studien iiber Claudius 
Ptolemdus, 1894, pp. 133 fi. 


6. Suetonius, Tib., 60. 
7. Suetonius, Othon, 8; cf. Bouché-Leclercgq, p. 556, n. 4. 


8. On these edifices, cf. Maass, Tagesgétter, 1902. The form 
“Septizonia” is preferable to “Septizodia”; cf. Schtirer, Sieben- 
tigige Woche (Extr. Zeitschr. neutestam. Wissensch., V1), 
1904, pp. 31, 63. 

g. Friedlander, Sittengesch., I, p. 364. It appears that astrol- 
ogy never obtained a hold on the lower classes of the rural 
population. It has a very insignificant place in the folklore 
and healing arts of the peasantry. 

10. Manilius, IV, 16—For instance CIL, VI, 13782, the epi- 
taph of a Syrian freedman: “L. Caecilius L. l(ibertus) Syrus, 
natus mense Maio hora noctis VI, die Mercuri, vixit ann. VI 
dies XX XIII, mortuus est IIII Kal. Iulias hora X, elatus est 
h(ora) III frequentia maxima.’ Cf. Bucheler, Carm. epigr., 
1536: “Voluit hoc astrum meum.” 


11. Chapter Ilepi delrvov: Cat. codd. astr., IV, p. 94. The 
precept: “Ungues Mercurio, barbam love, Cypride crinem,” 


272 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


ridiculed by Ausonius, VII, 20, p. 108, Piper) is well known. 
There are many chapters epi dvixwy, Mept iuariwy, etc. 

12. Cat.» codd,..astr,°Ny.%: (Rom); py vii CoGa2, 1. 
Ilepi tov ei éyer péyav piva 6 yevvnbeic. ldrepov mépvy yévytat 7 
yevynbcioa, 

13. Varro, De re rustica, I, 37, 2; cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., XVI, 
75, § 194. Olympiod, Comm. in Alcibiad Plat., p. 18 (ed. 
Creuzer, 1821): Tovs leparixws Savras tori ideivy un aAmoKerpopévous 
aviovons THs cehknvns. This applies to popular superstition rather 
than to astrology. 

14. CIL, VI, 27140 = Biicheler, Carmina epigraph., 1163: 
“Decepit utrosque | Maxima mendacis fama mathematici.” 

15. Palchos in the Cat. codd. astr., I, pp. 106-107. 

16. Manilius, IV, 386 ff., 866 ff. passim. 


17:.V-ettius: Valens, 'V,\12)( Cat. coda ast’. Vi. 2... 420-0. 
230,°8, Kwrolled,) ct. uV, On( GG Vere, Daal o20 ne eee at 
Kroll ed.). 


18. Cf. Steph. Byz., Cat. codd. astr., II, p. 186. He calls 
both croxacuos Evrexvos, The expression is taken up again by 
Manuel Comnenus (Cat., V, I, p. 123, 4), and by the Arab 
Abou-Mashar [Apomasar] (Cat., V, 2, p. 153). 


19. The sacerdotal origin of astrology was well known to the 
ancients; see Manilius, I, 4o ff. 


20. Thus in the chapter on the fixed stars which passed 
down to Theophilus of Edessa and a Byzantine of the ninth 
century, from a pagan author who wrote at Rome in 379; cf. 
Cat. codd. astrol., V, 1, pp. 212, 218—The same observation 
has been made in the manuscripts of the Cyranides, cf. F. de 
Mély and Ruelle, Lapidaires grecs, Il, p. xi. n. 3.—See also 
Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 31 ff.; Boll, Die Erforsch. der an- 
tiken Astrologie, pp. 110 ff. 


21. In Vettius Valens, III, 12 (p. 150, 12 Kroll ed.) and IX, 
prooem. (p. 320, 20); cf. VI, prooem. (p. 241, 16); Riess, 
Petosiridis et Necheps. fragm., fr. 1. 

22. Vettius Valens, IV, 11 (Cat. codd, astr., V, 2, p. 86 = 
Dp. 172, 31.ff., Kroll ed.), ct. V3 512) (Catabid;, p32 peete, 
18 ff.), VII prooem. (Cat., p. 41 = p. 263, 1. 4, Kroll ed. and 
the note). 


NOTES—ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 273 


23. Firmicus Maternus, II, 30, VIII, prooem. and 5. Cf. 
Theophilus of Edessa, Cat., V, 1, p. 238, 25; Julian of Laod., 
Can, LV ,.D. 104, A: 


24. CIL, V, 5893.—Chaeremon, an Egyptian priest, was also 
an astrologer. 


25. Souter, Classical Review, 1897, p. 136; Ramsay, Cities 
and Bishoprics of Phrygia, II, p. 566, 790. 


26. On the Stoic theory of sympathy see Bouché-Leclercq, 
pp. 28 ff., passim. A brilliant account will be found in Proclus, 
In remp. Plat., II, 258f., Kroll ed. Cf. also Clem. Alex., 
Stirom., VI, 16, p. 143 (p. 504, 21, Stahelin ed.)—Philo at- 
tributed it to the Chaldeans (De migrat. Abrahami, 32, II, p. 
303, 5, Wendland) : 

Xaddaiot Trav GAAwy avOporwv Exrerrovynkévat Kat diagepdvTw¢ Sokovoww 
doTpovouiiay Kai yevebAadoyixgy, Ta ériyera TOIg peTe@polc Kal Ta ovpdvia 
Toic Ext yc apuofouevor Kai Gorrep did povotkyg Adywv tHv éEupeheotatyy 
ovuduviay Tov TavTog Eridetkvipevol TH TOV mEpOv pbc AAAnAAa Kotvwria 
kai ovurrabeia, Térolg pév dieCevypévwr, ovyyeveia d& ov DiwKiopévor., 

27. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s. v. “Aberglaube,” 
I, col. 38 f. 

29. Cat., V, 1, p. 210, where a number of other examples 
will be found. 

30. See Boll, Sphaera (passim), and his note on the lists of 
animals assigned to the planets, in Roscher, Lexikon Myth., 
s. v. “Planeten,” III, col. 2534; cf. Die Erforsch. der Astrologie, 
Pst tO,f1..3: 

BT OGk. Vale DD.-210.0: 

32. Cf. supra, ch. V. pp. 128 ff. 

33. Cf. supra, ch. V, n. 87. 

34. On worship of the sky, of the signs of the zodiac, and 
of the elements, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 85 ff., 98 ff., 108 ff. 

35. The magico-religious notion of sanctity, of mana, ap- 
peared in the idea and notation of time. This has been shown 
by Hubert in his profound analysis of La représentation du 
temps dans la religion et la magie (Progr. éc. des Hautes- 
Etudes), 1905 = Mélanges Must. des rel., Paris, 1909, p. 190. 


36. On the worship of Time see Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 20, 


274 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


74 ff.; of the seasons: ibid., pp. 92 ff. There is no doubt that 
the veneration of time and its subdivisions (seasons, months, 
days, etc.) spread through the influence of astrology. Zeno 
had deified them; see Cicero, Nat. D., II, 63 (= von Arnim, 
fr. 165): “Astris hod idem (i. e. vim divinam) tribuit, tum 
annis, mensibus, annorumque mutationibus.” In conformity 
with the materialism of the Stoics these subdivisions of time 
were conceived by him as bodies (von Arnim, loc. cit., II, fr. 
665; cf. Zeller, Ph. Gr., IV, p. 316, p. 221). The later texts 
have been collected by Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon, s. v. 
“Men,” II, col. 2689. See also Ambrosiaster, Comm. in epist. 
Galat., IV, 10 (Migne, col. 381 B). Egypt had worshiped the 
hours, the months, and the propitious and adverse years as 
gods long before the Occident; see Wiedemann, Joc. cit. (infra, 
n. 64) pp. 7 ff. 

37. They adorn many astronomical manuscripts, particularly 
the Vaticanus gr. 1291, the archetype of which dates back to 
the third century of our era; cf. Boll, Sitzungsb. Akad. Miin- 
chen, 1899, pp. 125 ff., 136 ff. 


38. Piper, Mythologie der christl. Kunst, 1851, II, pp. 313 f. 
Cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 220. 


39. Bidez, Bérose et la grande année in the Mélanges Paul 
Fredericq, Brussels, 1904, pp. 9 ff. 


40. Cf. supra, pp. 126, 158 f. 


41. When Goethe had made the ascent of the Brocken, in 
1784, during splendid weather, he expressed his admiration 
by writing the following verses from memory, (II, 115): 
“Quis caelum possit, nisi caeli munere, nosse | Et reperire deum, 
nisi qui pars ipse deorum est?”; cf. Brief an Frau von Stein, 
No. 518, (Sch6ll) 1885, quoted by Ellis in Noctes Manilianae, 
p. vill. | 

42. This idea in the verse of Manilius (n. 41, cf. IV, 910), 
and which may be found earlier in Somnium Scipionis (III, 
4; see Macrobius, Comment. I, 14, § 16; “Animi societatem 
cum caelo et sideribus habere communem”; Pseudo-Apul., 
Asclepius, c. 6, c. 9. Firmicus Maternus, Astrol., I, 5, § 10). 
dates back to Posidonius who made the contemplation of the 
sky one of the sources of the belief in God (Capelle, Jahrb. 


NOTES—-ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 275 


fiir das klass. Altertum, VIII, 1905, p. 534, n. 4), and it is 
even older than that, for Hipparchus had already admitted a 
“cognationem cum homine siderum, animasque, nostras par- 
tem esse caeli” (Pliny, Hist. nat., II, 26, § 95). 


43. Vettius Valens, IX, 8 (Cat. codd. astr., V, 2, p. 123= 
p. 346, 20, Kroll ed.), VI, prooem. (Cat., ibid. p. 34, p. 35, 14 
= p. 242, 16, 29, Kroll ed.) ; cf. the passages of Philo collected 
by Cohn, De optficio mundi, c. 23, p.24, and Capelle, loc. cit. 

44. Manilius, IV, 14. 

45. Cf. my article on L’éternité des empercurs (Rev. hist. 
litt. relig., 1), 1808, pp. 445 ff. 

46. Reitzenstein, to whom belongs the credit of having 
shown the strength of this astrological fatalism (see iu/ra, 
n. 57), believes that it developed in Egypt, but surely he is 
wrong. In this connection see the observations of Bousset, Got- 
ting. gel. Anzeigen, 1905, p. 704. 

47. The most important work is unfortunately lost: it was 
the Ilepi efuappevns by Diodorus of Tarsus. Photius has left us 
a summary (cod. 223). We possess a treatise on the same 
subject by Gregory of Nyssa (P. G., XLV, p. 145). They 
were supported by the Platonist Hierocles (Photius, cod. 214, 
p. 172b.).—Many attacks on astrology are found in St. Eph- 
raim, Opera syriaca, II, pp. 437 ff.; St. Basil (Herxaem., V1, 
5), St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Methodus (Symp., P. G., 
XVII, p. 1173); later in St. John Chrysostom, Procopus of 
Gaza, etc. A curious extract from Julian of Halicarnassus 
has been published by Usener, Rheinisches Mus., LV, 1900, p. 
321.—We have spoken briefly of the Latin polemics in the 
Revue dhist. et de litt. relig., VIII, 1903, pp. 423 f. A work 
entitled De Fato (Bardenhewer, Gesch. altchr. Lit., I, p. 315) 
has been attributed to Minucius Felix; Nicetas of Remesiana 
(about 4oo) wrote a book Adversus genethlialogiam (Gen- 
nadius, Vir. inl., c. 22), but the principal adversary of the 
mathematici was St. Augustine (Civ. Dei, c. 1 ff.; Epist., 246, 
ad Lampadium, etc.). See also Wendland, Dre hellenistisch- 
romische Kultur, p. 172, n. 2. 


48. The influence of the astrological ideas was felt by the 
Arabian paganism before Mohammed; see supra, ch. VIII, n. 


57: 


276 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


49. Dante, Purg., XXX, 109 ff.—In the Convivio, II, ch. XIV, 
Dante expressly professes the doctrine of the influence of the 
stars over human affairs—The church succeeded in extir- 
pating the learned astrology of the Latin world almost com- 
pletely at the beginning of the Middle Ages. We do not 
know of one astrological. treatise, or of one manuscript of the 
Carlovingian period, but the ancient faith in the power of the 
stars continued in secret and gained new strength when Europe 
came in contact with Arabian science. 


50. Bouché-Leclercq devotes a chapter to them (pp. 609 ff.). 


51. Seneca, Quaest. Nat., Il, 35: “Expiationes et procura- 
tiones nihil aliud esse quam aegrae mentis solatia. Fata in- 
revocabiliter ius suum peragunt nec ulla commoventur prece.” 
Cf. Schmidt, Veteres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de pre- 
cibus, Giessen, 1907, p. 34.—Vettius Valens, V,9, (Catal. codd. 
astr., V, 2 p. 30, II = p. 220, 28, Kroll ed.), professes that 
’"Adbvaré» Tiva evyaic H Ovoiag éEmivixqoat THY EF Apyi¢ KaTaBoAhv 
k,T,., but he seems to contradict himself, IX, 8 (p. 347, 1 ff.). 

52. Suetonius, 77b., 69: “Circa deos ac religiones neglegen- 
tior, quippe addictus mathematicae, plenusque persuasionis 
cuncta fato agi.” Cf. Manilius, IV. 


53. Vettius Valens, IX, 11 (Cat. codd. astr., V, 2, p. 51, 8 ff. 
= p. 355, 15, Kroll ed.), cf. VI, prooem. (Cat., p. 33 =p. 240, 
Kroll). 

54. “Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deos oratis?” reads a verse 
of Commodianus (I, 16, 5). The antinomy between the belief 
in fatalism and this practice did not prevent the two from 
existing side by side, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 120, 311; 
Revue dhist. et de litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 431—The peri- 
patetic Alexander of Aphrodisias who fought fatalism in his 
Tlepi eiwapuéevns, at the beginning of the third century, and who 
violently attacked the charlatanism and cupidity of the astrol- 
ogers in another book (De anima mantissa, p. 180, 14, Bruns), 
formulated the contradiction in the popular beliefs of his 
time (ibid., p. 182, 18): 

Iloré wév dvipwrot 76 tHe eiuappévyc buvovow o¢ avaykaiov, roré dé ov 
ravTy THy ovvéxetav avTig mioTebovot odlev' Kal yap oi dud Tov Adywv 
imép avTig O¢ ovong avayxaiag dratervouevol ofddpa Kai wavta avatibévtec 
auth, év Taig Kata Tov Biov mpaseow ovK Eoikacly avTH meTLoTEVKEVaL’ 


NOTES—ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. Dis 


Tiyxny yoor rodrdxec éxibo@vtat, GAAnv 6uohoyowrtes elvar TatTHY aitiay Tie 
eluapmévnc’ adda Kai Toig Beoig ob diadsizovow eb youevol, O¢ Ovvauévor TLvdE 
br’ avtov dia Tag ebyac yevéobat kai mapa THY eluapuévyy’...Kai pwavTeiatc 
OvK OKvovGL ypyobal, Oc évov avToic, Et rpoudboer, dvAdEadbai Tt TOV eiwap- 
pévov,....amiaveratat yovv eicw avtav al mpo¢ THY TobTwY CUUdwviaD 


evpyotroyiat. Cf. also De Fato, c. 2 (p. 165, 26 ff. Bruns). 


55. Manilius, II, 466: “Quin etiam propriis inter se legibus 
astra Conveniunt, ut certa gerant commercia rerum, | Inque 
vicem praestant visus atque auribus haerent, | Aut odium, 
foedusque gerunt,’ etc.— Signs PBdérovra and dkovorvra: cf. 
Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 159 ff.—The planets rejoice (xalpe) in 
their mansions, etc.—Signs wvijevra, etc.: cf. Cat., I, pp. 
164 ff.; Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 77 ff. The terminology of the 
driest didactic texts is saturated with mythology. 


56. Saint Leo, In Nativ., VII, 3 (Migne, P. L., LIV, col. 
218) ; Firmicus, I, 6, 7; Ambrosiaster, in the Revue d’hist. et 
litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 16. 


57. Cf. Reitzenstein, Poimandres, pp. 77 ff., cf. p. 103, where 
a text of Zosimus attributes this theory to Zoroaster. Wend- 
land, Die hellenistisch-rém. Kultur, 1907, p. 81. This is the 
meaning of the verse of the Orac. Chaldaica: O¥ yap id’ eipap- 
Thy ayedny wimrovot Oeovpyot (p. 59 Kroll). According to Ar- 
nobius (II, 62, Cornelius Labeo) the magi claimed “deo esse 
se gnatos nec fati obnoxios legibus.” 


58. Bibliography. We have no complete book on Greek and 
Roman magic. Maury, La magie et lastrologie dans lanti- 
quité et au moyen age, 1864, is a mere sketch. The most com- 
plete account is Hubert’s art. “Magia” in the Dict. des anti- 
quités of Daremberg, Saglio, Pottier. It contains an index 
of the sources and the earlier bibliography. More recent 
studies are: Fahz, De poet. Roman. doctrina magica, Giessen, 
1903; Audollent, Defixionum tabulae, Paris, 1904; Wiinsch, 
Antikes Zaubergerat aus Pergamon, Berlin, 1905 (important 
objects found dating back to the third century, A. D.); Abt, 
Die Apologie des Apuleius und die Zauberei, Giessen, 1908.— 
The superstition that is not magic, but borders upon it, is the 
subject of a very important article by Riess, “Aberglaube,” in 
the Realenc. of Pauly-Wissowa. An essay by Kroll, Antiker 
Aberglaube, Hamburg, 1897, deserves mention.—Cf, Ch. Michel 


278 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 


in the Revue d’hist. et litt. rel., VII, 1902, p. 184. See also 
infra, nn. 64, 65, 72. 


59. The question of the principles of magic has recently 
been the subject of discussions started by the theories of 
Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2d ed., 1900 (cf. Goblet d’Alviella, 
Revue de l'univ. de Bruxelles, Oct. 1903). See Andrew Lang, 
Magic and Religion, London, 1901; Hubert and Mauss, Es- 
quisse d'une théorie générale de la magie (Année sociologique, 
VIT), 1904, p. 56; cf. Mélanges hist. des relig., Paris, 1900, pp. 
xvii ff.; Jevons, Magic, in the Transactions of the Congress for 
the History of Religions, Oxford, 1908, I, p. 71. Loisy, “Magie 
science et religion,’ in A propos d’hist. des religions, 191I, p. 
166. 


60. S. Reinach, Mythes, cultes et relig., II, Intr., p. xv. 


61. The infiltration of magic into the liturgy under the 
Roman empire is shown especially in connection with the 
ritual of consecration of the idols, by Hock, Griechische W eithe- 
gebraéuche, Wiirzburg, 1905, p. 66.—Cf. also Kroll, Archiv fiir 
Religionsw., VIII, 1905, Beiheft, pp. 27 ff. 


62. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, I, pp. 509 f. 


63. Arnobius, II, 62, cf. II], 13; Ps.-lamblichus, De Myst., 
VIII, 4. 


64. Magic in Egypt: Budge, Egyptian Magic, London, 1901; 
Wiedemann, Afagie und Zauberei im alten Aegypten, Leipsic, 
1905 [cf. Maspero, Rev. critique, 1905, II, p. 166]; Otto, Prie- 
ster und Tempel, Il, p. 224; Griffith, The Demotic Magical 
Papyrus of London and Leiden, 1904 (a remarkable collection 
dating back to the third century of our era), and the writings 
analyzed by Capart, Rev. hist. des relig., 1905 (Bulletin of 
1904, p. 17), 1906 (Bull. of 1905, p. 92). 


65. Fossey, La magte assyrienne, Paris, 1902. The earlier 
bibliography will be found p. 7. See also Hubert in Darem- 
berg, Saglio, Pottier, Dict. des antiq., s. v. “Magia,” p. 1505, n. 
5. Campbell Thomson, Semitic Magic, Its Origin and Devel- 
opment, London, 1908. 

Traces of magical conceptions have survived even in the 
prayers of the orthodox Mohammedans; see the curious ob- 


NOTES—ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 279 


servations of Goldziher, Studien, Theodor Néldeke gewidmet, 
1906, I, pp. 302 ff. The Assyrio-Chaldean magic may be com- 
pared profitably with Hindu magic (Victor Henry, La Magie 
dans l'Inde antique, Paris, 1904). 

66. There are many indications that the Chaldean magic 
spread over the Roman empire, probably as a consequence of 
the conquests of Trajan and Verus (Apul., De Magia, c. 38; 
Lucian, Philopseudes, c. 11; Necyom., c. 6, etc. Cf. Hubert, 
loc. cit.) Those most influential in reviving these studies 
seem to have been two rather enigmatical personages, Julian 
the Chaldean, and his son Julian the Theurge, who lived under 
Marcus Aurelius. The latter was considered the author of the 
Aoyia Xadéaika, which in a measure became the Bible of the 
last neo-Platonists. 

67. Apul., De Magia, c. 27. The name ¢Adcodgos, philosophus, 
was finally applied to all adepts in the occult sciences. 

68. The term seems to have been first used by Julian, called 
the Theurge, and thence to have passed to Porphyry (Epist. 
Aneb., c. 46; Augustine, Civ. Dei, X, 9-10) and to the neo- 
Platonists. 

69. Hubert, article cited, pp. 1494, n. 1; 1499 f.; 1504. Ever 
since magical papyri were discovered in Egypt, there has been 
a tendency to exaggerate the influence exercised by that 
country on the development of magic. It made magic prom- 
inent as we have said, but a study of these same papyri proves 
that elements of very different origin had combined with the 
native sorcery, which seems to have laid special stress upon the 
importance of the “barbarian names,” because to the Egyp- 
tians the name had a reality quite independent of the object 
denoted by it, and possessed an effective force of its own 
(supra, pp. 93, 95). But that is, after all, only an incidental 
theory, and it is significant that in speaking of the origin of 
magic, Pliny (XXX, 7) names the Persians in the first place, 
and does not even mention the Egyptians. 


70. Mon. myst. Mithra, 1, pp. 230 ff.—Consequently Zoro- 
aster, the undisputed master of the magi, is frequently con- 
sidered a disciple of the Chaldeans or as himself coming from 
Babylon. The blending of Persian and Chaldean beliefs ap- 
pears clearly in Lucian, Necyom., 6 ff. 


280 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


71. The majority of the magical formulas attributed to 
Democritus are the work of forgers like Bolos of Mendes 
(cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, I’, pp. 440f.), but 
the authorship of this literature could not have been attrib- 
uted to him, had not these tendencies been so favorable. 


72. On Jewish magic see: Blau, Das altjsiidische Zauber- 
wesen, 1898; cf. Hubert, loc. cit., p. 1505. 


73: -Plinys AN; XXX, 4, 8716 yuvenal AV i sap en 
Pliny’s opinion these magicians were especially acquainted 
with veneficas artes. The toxicology of Mithridates goes back 
to that source (Pliny, XXV, 2, 7). Cf. Horace, Epod., V, 21; 
Virgil, Buc. VIII, 95, etc. 


FANS SUPTO, DD. S151 fi: 
75. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 26; cf. supra, ch. VI, p. 152. 


76. In a passage outlining the Persian demonology (see 
supra, n. 39), Porphyry tells us (De Abst., Il, 41): 

Tovtovg (sc. Tove daipovac) pahiora Kai Tov TpoecTOra avTev (Cc. 42, 7 
TMpoeoTaoa avtov dvvayic == Ahriman) éxtiyudory of Ta KaKa O14 TOV Yor- 
Te@v Tpattouevoe kK. T. A. Cf. Lactantius, Divin. Inst., II, 14 
(I, p. 164, 10, Brandt ed.); Clem. of Alexandria, Stromat., 
III, p. 46 C, and supra, n. 37. The idea that the demons sub- 
sisted on the offerings and particularly on the smoke of the 
sacrifices agrees entirely with the old Persian and Babylonian 
ideas. See Yasht V, XXI, 94: What “becomes of the liba- 
tions which the wicked bring to you after sunset?” “The 
devas receive them,’ etc——In the cuneiform tablet of the 
deluge (see 160 ff.), the gods “smell the good odor and gather 
above the officiating priest like flies.” (Dhorme, Textes reli- 
gieux. assyro-babyloniens, 1907, p. 115; cf. Maspero, Hist. anc. 
des peuples de l Orient, I, p. 681.). 


7. Plut., De Iside, c. 46. 


78. The druj Nasu of the Mazdeans; cf. Darmesteter, Zend- 
Avesta, Il, p. xi and 146 ff. 


79. Cf. Lucan, Phars., V1, 520 ff. 
80. Mommsen, Strafrecht, pp. 639 ff. There is no doubt that 


the legislation of Augustus was directed against magic, cf. 
Dion, LII, 34, 3—Manilius (II, 108) opposes to astrology the 


NOTES—THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 281 


artes quarum haud permissa facultas. Cf. also Suet., Aug., 
31. 


81. Zachariah the Scholastic, Vie de Sévére d’Antioche, Ku- 
gener ed. (Patrol. orientalis, 11), 1903, pp. 57 ff. 


82. Magic at Rome in the fifth century: Wiinsch, Sethia- 
nische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom, Leipsic, 1898 (magical 
leads dated from 390 to 420); Revue hist. litt. relig., VIII, 
1903, p. 435, and Burchardt, Die Zeit Constantin’s, 2d ed., 1880, 
pp. 236 ff. 


VIII. THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY: The history of the destruction of paganism is 
a subject that has tempted many historians. Beugnot (1835), 
Lasaulx (1854), Schulze (Jena, 1887-1892) have tried it with 
varying success (see Wissowa, Religion der Romer, pp. 84 ff.). 
But hardly any one has been interested in the reconstruction 
of the theology of the last pagans, although material is not 
lacking. The meritorious studies of Gaston Boissier (La fin 
du Paganisme, Paris, 1891) treat especially the literary and 
moral aspects of that great transformation. Allard (Julien 
PApostat, I, 1900, p. 39 ff.) has furnished a summary of the 
religious evolution during the fourth century. 


V. pocrates,. Hist. Eccl, TV, 32. 


2. It is a notable fact that astrology scarcely penetrated at 
all into the rural districts (supra, ch. VII, n. 9), where the 
ancient devotions maintained themselves; see the Vita S. 
Eligiit, Migne, P. L., XL, col. 1172f—In the same way the 
cult of the menhirs in Gaul persisted in the Middle Ages; 
see d’Arbois de Jubainville, Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 
1906, pp. 146 ff.; S. Reinach, Mythes, cultes, III, 1908, pp. 
365 ff. 

3. Aug., Civ. Dei, IV, 21 et passim. Arnobius and Lactan- 
tius had previously developed this theme. 


4. On the use made of mythology during the fourth century, 
cf. Burckhardt, Zeit Contantins, 2d ed., 1880, pp. 145-147; Bois- 
sier, La fin du paganisme, II, pp. 276 ff, and passim. 


282 THE ORIENTAL RELIGION. 


5. It is well known that the poems of Prudentius (348-410), 
especially the Peristephanon, contain numerous attacks on pa- 
ganism and the pagans. 


6. Cf. La polémique de lTAmbrosiaster contre les paiens (Rev. 
hist. et htt. relig., VIII, 1903, pp. 418 ff.). On the personal- 
ity of the author (probably the converted Jew Isaac), cf. 
Souter, A Study of Ambrosiaster, Cambridge, 1905 (Texts 
and Studies, VII) and his edition of the Quaestiones (Vienna, 
1908), intr. p. xxiv. 


7. The identity of Firmicus Maternus, the author of De 
errore profanarum religionum, and that of the writer of the 
eight books Matheseos appears to have been definitely estab- 
lished. 


8. Maximus was Bishop of Turin about 458-465 A.D. We 
possess as yet only a very defective edition of the treatises 
Contra Paganos and Contra Judaeos (Migne, Patr. lat., LYII, 
col. 781 ff.). 


9. Particularly the Carmen adversus paganos written after 
Eugene’s attempt at restoration in 394 A. D. (Riese, An- 
thol. lat., I, 20) and the Carmen ad senatorem ad idolorum 
servitutem conversum, attributed to St. Cyprian (Hartel. ed., 
III, p. 302), which is probably contemporaneous with the 
former. 


10. On this point see the judicious reflections of Paul Allard, 
Julien lApostat, I, 1900, p. 35. 

11. Hera was the goddess of the air after the time of the 
Stoics (““Hpa = amp). 

12. Cf. supra, pp. 51, 75, 99, 120, 148. Besides the Oriental 
gods the only ones to retain their authority were those of the 
Grecian mysteries, Bacchus and Hecate, and even tuese were 
transformed by their neighbors. 


13. The wife of Praetextatus, after praising his career and 
talents in his epitaph, adds: “Sed ista parva: tu pius mystes 
sacris | teletis reperta mentis arcano premis, | divumque nu- 
men multiplex doctus colis” (C7L, 1779 = Dessau, Inscr. sel., 
1259). 

14. Pseudo-August. [Ambrosiaster], Quaest. Vet. et Nov. 
- Test., (p. 139, 9-11, Souter ed): “Paganos elementis esse sub- 


NOTES—THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 283 


iectos nulli dubium est....Paganos elementa colere omnibus 
cognitum est”; cf. 103 (p. 304, 4 Souter ed.): “Solent (pa- 
gani) ad elementa confugere dicentes haec se colere quibus 
gubernaculis regitur vita humana” (cf. Rev. hist. lit. rel., VIUII, 
1903, p. 426, n. 3).—Maximus of Turin (Migne, P. L., LVII, 
783) : “Dicunt pagani: nos solem, lunam et stellas et universa 
elementa colimus et veneramur.” Cf. Mon myst. Mithra, I, 
p. 103, n. 4, p. 108. 


15. Firmicus Maternus, Mathes., VII prooem: “(Deus) qui 
ad fabricationem omnium elementorum diversitate composita 
ex contrariis et repugnantibus cuncta perfecit.” 


16. Elementum is the translation of gorotxetory, which has 
had the same meaning in Greek at least ever since the first 
century (see Diels, Elementum, 1899, pp. 44 ff., and the Septua- 
gint, Sap. Sal., 7, 18; 19, 17. Pfister, “Die crotxeta Tov Kéopov 
in den Briefen des Paulus,’ Philologus, LXIX, 1910, p. 410.—In 
the fourth century this meaning was generally accepted: Macro- 
bius, Somn. Sciptonts, I, 12, § 16: “Caeli dico et siderum, alio- 
rumque elementorum”; cf. I, 11, §7 ff. Martianus Capella, 
II, 209; Ambrosiaster, loc. cit.; Maximus of Turin, loc. cit.; 
Lactantius, II, 13, 2: “Elementa mundi, caelum, solem, ter- 
ram, mare.’—Cf. Diels, op. cit., pp. 78 ff. 


17. Cf. Rev. hist. litt. rel., VIII, 1903, pp. 420 ff.—Until the 
end of the fifth century higher education in the Orient re- 
mained in the hands of the pagans. The life of Severus of 
Antioch, by Zachariah the Scholastic, preserved in a Syrian 
translation [swpra, ch. VII, n. 81], is particularly instructive 
in this regard. The Christians, who were opposed to pagan- 
ism and astrology, consequently manifested an aversion to the 
profane sciences in general, and in that way they became 
responsible to a serious extent for the gradual extinction of 
the knowledge of the past (cf. Rev. hist. litt. rel., tbid., p. 431; 
Royer, L’ensetgnement d’Ausone a Alcuin, 1906, p. 130ff.). 
But it must be said in their behalf that before them Greek 
philosophy had taught the vanity of every science that did 
not have the moral culture of the ego for its purpose, see 
Geffcken, Aus der Werdezeit des Christentums, p. 7, p. 111. 


18 Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 204. Cf. supra, pp. 175 f. 


284 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


19. Ambrosiaster, Comm. in Epist. Pauli, p. 58 B: “Dicentes 
per istos posse ire ad Deum sicut per comites pervenire ad 
regem” (cf. Rev. his. lit. rel., VIII, 1903, p. 427).—The same 
idea was set forth by Maximus of Turin (Adv. pag., col. 791) 
and by Lactantius (Jnst. div., II, 16, §5 ff., p. 168 Brandt) ; 
on the celestial court, see also Arnobius, II, 36; Tertullian, 
Apol., 24.—Zeus bore the name of king, but the Hellenic Olym- 
pus was in reality a turbulent republic. The conception of a 
supreme god, the sovereign of a hierarchical court, seems to 
have been of Persian origin, and to have been propagated by 
the magi and the mysteries of Mithra. The inscription of 
the Nemroud Dagh speaks of Avs ’Qpopdcdou Opovovs (supra, 
ch. VI, n. 26), and, in fact, a bas-relief shows Zeus-Oramasdes 
sitting on a throne, scepter in hand. The Mithra bas-reliefs 
likewise represent Jupiter Ormuzd on a throne, with the other 
gods standing around him (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 129; II, 
p. 188, fig. 11); and Hostanes pictured the angels sitting 
around the throne of God (supra, ch. VI, n. 38; see Rev. iv). 
Moreover, the celestial god was frequently compared, not to 
a king in general, but to the Great King, and people spoke of 
his satraps; cf. Pseudo-Arist., Hepi xoopov, c.6, p. 398 a, 10 ff. 
= Apul. De mundo, c. 26; Philo, De opif. mundi, c. 23, 27 
(p. 24,°17; 32, 24, Cohn) (Maximus of lurm; 47708) ana 
Capelle, Die Schrift von der Welt (Neue Jahrb. fiir das klass. 
Altert., VIII), 1905, p. 556, n. 6. Particularly important is a 
passage of Celsus (Origen, Contra Cels., VIII, 35) where the 
relation of this doctrine to the Persian demonology is shown. 
But the Mazdean conception must have combined, at an early 
date, with the old Semitic idea that Baal was the lord and 
master of his votaries (supra, p. 94ff.). In his Neutesta- 
mentliche Zeitgeschichte (2d. ed., 1906, p. 364 ff.), Holtzmann 
insists on the fact that the people derived their conception of 
the kingdom of God from the pattern of the Persian monarchy. 
See also supra, p. III. 

A comparison similar to this one, which is also found among 
the pagans of the fourth century, is the comparison of heaven 
with a city (Nectarius in St. Aug., Epist., 103 [Migne, P. L., 
XXXII, col. 386]): “Civitatem quam magnus Deus et bene 
meritae de eo animae habitant,” etc. Compare the City of 
God of St. Augustine and the celestial Jerusalem of the Jews 


NOTES—-THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 285 


(Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 1903, p. 272).—Cf. also 
Manilius, V, 735 ff. 


20. August., Epist. 16 [48] (Migne, Pat. Lat., XXXIII, 
col. 82): “Equidem unum esse Deum summum sine initio, sine 
prole naturae, seu patrem magnum atque magnificum, quis 
tam demens, tam mente captus neget esse certissimum? Huius 
nos virtutes per mundanum opus diffusas multis vocabulis in- 
vocamus, quoniam nomen eius cuncti proprium videlicet ig- 
noramus. Nam Deus omnibus religionibus commune nomen 
est. Ita fit ut, dum eius quasi quaedam membra carptim 
variis supplicationibus prosequimur, totum colere profecto vi- 
deamur.” And at the end: “Dii te servent, per quos et eorum 
atque cunctorum mortalium communem patrem, universi mor- 
tales, quos terra sustinet, mille modis concordi discordia, vene- 
ramur et colimus.” Cf. Lactantius Placidus, Comm. in Stat. 
Theb., IV, 516.—Another pagan (Epist., 234 [21], Migne, P. 
L., XXXIII, col. 1031) speaks “deorum comitatu vallatus, 
Dei utique potestatibus emeritus, id est eius unius et universi 
et incomprehensibilis et ineffabilis infatigabilisque Creatoris 
impletus virtutibus, quos (read quas) ut verum est angelos 
dicitis vel quid alterum post Deum vel cum Deo aut a Deo 
aut in Deum.” 


21. The two ideas are contrasted in the Paneg. ad Constantin. 
Aug., 313 A. D., c. 26 (p. 212, Bahrens ed.) : “Summe rerum 
sator, cuius tot nomina sunt quot gentium linguas esse voluisti 
(quem enim te ipse dici velis, scire non possumus), sive tute 
quaedam vis mensque divina es, quae toto infusa mundo om- 
nibus miscearis elementis et sine ullo extrinsecus accedente 
vigoris impulsu per te ipsa movearis, sive alique supra omne 
caelum potestas es quae hoc opus tuum ex altiore naturae arce 
despicias.”—Compare with what we have said of Jupiter ex- 
superantissimus (p. 190). 

22. Macrobius, Sat., I, 17 ff.; cf. Firm. Mat., Err. prof. rel., 
c. 8; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, 338 ff. Some have supposed that 
the source of Macrobius’s exposition was Iamblichus. 


23. Julian had intended to make all the temples centers of 
moral instruction (Allard, Julien lAposiat, Il, 186 ff.), and 
this great idea of his reign was partially realized after his 
death. His homilies were little appreciated by the bantering 


286 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS, 


and frivolous Greeks of Antioch or Alexandria, but they ap- 
pealed much more to Roman gravity. At Rome the rigorous 
mysteries of Mithra had paved the way for reform. St. 
Augustine, Epist., 91 [202] (Migne, P. L., XXXIII, col. 315), 
c. 408 A. D., relates that moral interpretations of the old myths 
were told among the pagans during his time: “Illa omnia quae 
antiquitus de vita deorum moribusque conscripta sunt, longe 
aliter sunt intelligenda atque interpretanda sapientibus. Ita 
vero in templis populis congregatis recitari huiuscemodi salu- 
bres interpretationes heri et nudiustertius audivimus.” See 
also Civ. Dei, II, 6: “Nec nobis nescio quos susurros paucis- 
simorum auribus anhelatos et arcana velut religione traditos 
iactent (pagani), quibus vitae probitas sanctitasque discatur.” 
Compare the epitaph of Praetextatus (CJL, VI, 1779 = Des- 
sau, Inscr. sel., 1259): “Paulina veri et castitatis conscia | 
dicata templis,” ete-—Firmicus Maternus (Mathes, II, 30) de- 
mands of the astrologer the practice of all virtues, “antistes 
enim deorum separatus et alienus esse debet a pravis illecebris 
voluptatum....Itaque purus, castus esto, etc.” 


24. This is clearly asserted by the verses of the epitaph 
cited (v. 22 ff): “Tu me, marite, disciplinarum bono | puram 
ac pudicam SORTE MORTIS EXIMENS, | in templa ducis ac famulam 
divis dicas: | Te teste cunctis imbuor mysteriis.” Cf. Aug., 
Epist., 234 (Migne, P. L., XXXIII, col. 1031, letter of a pagan 
to the bishop,) : “Via est in Deum melior, qua vir bonus, piis, 
puris iustis, castis, veris dictisque factisque probatus et deo- 
rum comitatu vallatus....ire festinat; via est, inquam, qua 
purgati antiquorum sacrorum piis praeceptis expiationibusque 
purissimis et abstemiis observationibus decocti anima et cor- 
pore constantes deproperant.”—St. Augustine( Civ. Dei, VI, 
1 and VI, 12) opposes the pagans who assert “deos non prop- 
ter praesentem vitam coli sed propter aeternam.” 


25. The variations of this doctrine are set forth in detail 
by Macrobius, In Somn. Scip., I, 11, §5 ff. According to some, 
the soul lived above the sphere of the moon, where the im- 
mutable realm of eternity began; according to others, in the 
spheres of the fixed stars where they placed the Elysian Fields 
(supra, ch. V, n. 65; see Martian, Capella, II, 209). The Milky 
Way in particular was assigned to them as their residence 


NOTES—-THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 287 


(Macr., ib., c. 12; cf. Favon. Eulog., Disput. de somn. Scipionis, 
p. 1, 20 [Holder ed.]: “Bene meritis....lactei circuli lucida 
ac candens habitatio deberetur”; St. Jerome, Ep., 23, $3 
[Migne, P. L., XXII, col. 426), in conformity with an old 
Pythagorean doctrine (Gundel, De stellarum appeilatione et 
relig. Romana, 1907, p. 153 [245], as well as an Egyptian doc- 
trine (Maspero, Hist. des peuples de lV Orient, I, p. 181).—Ac- 
cording to others, finally, the soul was freed from all connec- 
tion with the body and lived in the highest region of heaven, 
descending first through the gates of Cancer and Capricorn, 
at the intersection of the zodiac and the Milky Way, then 
through the spheres of the planets. This theory, which was 
that of the mysteries (supra, pp. 126, 152) obtained the ap- 
probation of Macrobius (“quorum sectae amicior est ratio”) 
who explains it in detail (I, 12, § 13 ff.). Arnobius, who got 
his inspiration from Cornelius Labeo (supra, ch. V, n. 64), 
opposed it, as a widespread error (II, 16): “Dum ad corpora 
labimur et properamus humana ex mundanis circulis, sequun- 
tur causae quibus mali simus et pessimi.” Cf. also, II, 33: 
“Vos, cum primum soluti membrorum abieretis e nodis, alas 
vobis adfuturas putatis quibus ad caelum pergere atque ad 
sidera volare possitis,” etc.). It had become so popular that 
the comedy by Querolus, written in Gaul during the first 
years of the fifth century, alluded to it in a mocking way, in 
connection with the planets (V, 38): “Mortales vero addere 
animas sive inferis nullus labor sive superis.” It was still 
taught, at least in part, by the Priscillianists (Aug., De 
haeres., 70; Priscillianus, éd. Schepss., p. 153, 15; cf. Herzog- 
Hauck, Realencycl., 3d ed., s. v. “Priscillian,” p. 63.—We 
have mentioned (supra, ch. V, n. 54) the origin of the belief 
and of its diffusion under the empire. 

26. Cf. supra, p. 152, and pp. 189 ff.; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, 
p. 206. 

27. This idea was spread by the Stoics (ékmUpwois) and by 
astrology (supra, p. 262); also by the Oriental religions, see 
Lactantius, Jnst., VII, 18, and Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 310. 

28. Gruppe (Griech. Mythol., pp. 1488 fi.) has tried to indi- 
cate the different elements that entered into this doctrine. 


29. Cf. supra, pp. 134f., p. 160 and passim. The similarity 


288 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


of the pagan theology to Christianity was strongly brought 
out by Arnobius, II, 13-14.—Likewise in regard to the Orient, 
de Wilamowitz has recently pointed out the close affinity unit- 
ing the theology of Synesius with that of Proclus (Sitzungsb. 
Akad. Berlin, XIV, 1907, pp. 280 ff.) he has also indicated 
how philosophy then led to Christianity. 


30. M. Pichon (Les derniers écrivains profanes, Paris, 1906) 
has recently shown how the eloquence of the panegyrists un- 
consciously changed from paganism to monotheism. See also 
Maurice, Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscriptions, 1900, p. 165. 
—The vague deism of Constantine strove to reconcile the op- 
position of heliolatry and Christianity (Burckhardt, Die Zeit 
Constantins, pp. 353 ff.) and the emperor’s letters addressed 
to Arius and the community of Nicomedia (Migne, P. G., 
LXXXV\V, col. 1343 ff.) are, as shown by Loeschke (Das Syn- 
tagma des Gelasius [Rhein. Mus., LXI], 1906, p. 44), “ein 
merkwiirdiges Produkt theologischen Dilettantismus, aufge- 
baut auf im wesentlichen pantheistischer Grundlage mit Hilfe 
weniger christlicher Termini und fast noch weniger christ- 
licher Gedanken.” JI shall cite a passage in which the influence 
of the astrological religion is particularly noticeable (col. 1552 
D): ’Idot yap 6 kéopuoe poppy eitovy oxjua Try YavEL OV’ Kal oi doTépeES ye 
xapaktipacg mpobébAnvrat:. kat bAwe TO TvEevpa Tod odatpoELdove TobTOV 
KtKAov, eldog TOV bvtwy Tvyxavet bv, Kal OoTEp wdpdwua’ Kal buwe d Oed¢ 
TAVTAyYoU Tapeote, 


INDEX. 


Ablutions, Ritualistic, 208. 
Absolutism, 38, 141, 161. 
Abstinence, 40. 

Abydos, 89, 98, 99, 237 n. 78; 
Isis in, 99; Liturgy of, 97; 
Mysteries of, 237 n. 77; Phal- 
lophories of, 78. 

Achemenides, 127, 135, 143. 

Adonis, 110; and Attis, 69. 

fEsculapius and Eshmoun, 21; 
Serpent sacred to, 173. 

Aeterna domus, 240 n. 91. 

Aeternus, Deus, 130. 

Africa, Isis in, 83. 

Agatha, St., 237 n. 73. 

Agathocles, 79, 8o. 

Agrippa forbids worship of Isis, 
82. 

Ahriman, 152, 190, 199; and Sa- 
tan, 153, 266 n. 36. 

Ahura-Mazda, 127, 145; and Bel, 
146. 

Alexander, 135; of Aphrodisias, 
276 n. 54; Polyhistor, 255 n. 66. 

Alexandria, 84; Greek influence 
in, 75.f.;. Isisi in; :90,'-232°n..33. 

Alexandrian calendar, 84; mys- 
teries, 99, 240 n. QI. 

Amasis, 86. 

Amber road, 216 n. 12. 

Ambrosiaster, 204. 

Ameretat, 145. 

Amici Augusti, 137. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, 211. 

Ammon, 230 n. 9. 

Amshaspends, 145, 263 n. 20. 
Anahita, 54, 65, 145; and Ishtar, 
146; Cybele and, 227 n. 32. 

Ananke, 182. 


Anatolia, 47, 139, 143. 


Andros, 76. 

Angels, 138, 152, 207, 267 n. 38. 

Animals, 116; sacred in Egypt, 
78, 230f. n. 11; sacred in Phry- 


gia, 48; sacred in Syria, 115f. 

Animism, 183. 

Anti-gods, 152. 

Antinous, 86. 

Antiochus, the Great, 105; of 
Commagene, 124, 264 n. 26. 

Antonines, 140. 

Antoninus Pius, 111. 

Antony, 82. 

Anubis, 77. 

Apertio, 95. 

Aphaca, 246 n. 4o. 

Aphrodite and Isis, 89. 

Apion, 218 n. 20. 

Apollo and Mithra, 155. 

Apollodorus of Damascus, 8. 

Apuleius, 20, 79, 97, 104, 129. 

Aquileia, Isis in, 83. 

Aquitania, 108. 

Arabia, Astrology in, 275 n. 48. 

Aramaic, 146. 

Archeology as source, 16. 

Architecture, 8, 216 n. II. 

Archon, 126. 

Aristotle, 138. 

Arius, 288 n. 30. 

Arles, 216 n. 12. 

Armenia, 144. 

Army. See “Soldiers” and ‘“Mi- 
litia.” 

Arnobius, 204, 223 n. 38, 226 n. 
30, 6236 ni 68,- 277 in. *58,. 287 
n. 25. 

Arsacides, 135. 


290 


Arsinoé, Serapeum in, 79. 

Art, Astrology in, 164, 168; Egyp- 
tian, 86; in Persia, 141; In- 
fluence of Oriental, 7; of Ori- 
ental religions, 33; of pagan- 
ism, 17, 218 n. 23. 

Artaxerxes, 137. 

Artemis and Cybele, 227 n. 32. 

Aryans, Nature worship of, 145. 

Ascalon, 117. 

Asceticism, 40f., 51, 157. 

Asia Minor, 46 ff., 197; Isis in, 
80; Mazdaism in, 145; Mithra- 
ism in, 143. 

Astarte, 120, 243 n. 213 Immoral- 
ity of, 118. 

Astrology, 207; and magic, 32, 
162ff.; Babylonian, 151; Chal- 
dean, 199; Christian theology 
and, 260 n. 89; in Syria, 123, 
133; Origin of; 170, 272 °n., 19; 
religious, 169. 

Atar, 145. 

Atargatis, 103ff.; and Venus, 123; 
Fish sacred to, 117. 

Athens, Serapis in, 79. 

Atonement, 4o. 

Attalus, 47, 5%. 

Attica, Attis and Cybele in, 62. 

Attis, x, 22, 48, 53, 69, 197, 225 
n. 213; and Cybele, 62 f.; Death 
of, 59; Hymns -to, 217 n. 14; 
in Greece 57; Menotyrannus, 
61. 

Augustine, St., 71, 202, 220 n. 
£5. Senay 

Augustus, 39, I11, 135, 187, 261 
n. 5, 280 n. 80; and Diocletian, 
3; and the Egyptian religion, 
82; Reforms of, 38. 

Aurelian, 114f., 124, 205, 252 n. 


59. 
Aust, Emil, xii. 
Autun, 57. 


Avesta, 142. 
Aziz, 113. 


Baal, X,: 22, 284, 24, 22886123, 
130, 248 n. 43; and Saturn, 21; 
different from Jehovah, 131; 
Mystics of, 41. 


Baptism, 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS, 


Ba’al samin, 127, 131, 151, 256 
nn. 69, 70; 264 nn. 25, 29. 

Baalat, 118, 123, 248 n. 43. 

Babylon, Astrology of, 151; Con- 
fession of sin in, 222 n. 313 
Cosmology of, 220 n. 15; In- 
fluence of in Persia, 146; In- 
fluence of in Syria, 122; Juda- 
ism and, 123. See also “Chal- 
deans.” ; 

Bacchus, 282 n. 12; and Attis, 69. 

Balmarcodes, 110. 

Baltis, 113. 

Bambyce, Lady of, 122. 

Mithraic, 157; 
bolium compared to, 70. 

Bardesanes of Edessa, 144. 

Beirut, 11of., 192. 

Bel, 32, 115, 123f.; Ahura Mazda 
and, 146. 

Bellona, 54. 

Beneventum, Iseum of, 233 n. 35. 

Berosus, 31, 163, 176. 

Bethels, 116. Se also “Lithol- ; 
atry.”’ 

Bidez, Joseph, 213 n. 1. 

Boethius, 21r. 

Book of the Dead, go. 

Borsippa, 122. 

Bronton, Zeus, 226 n. 24. 

Brotherhoods, 58. See also “Fra- 
ternity.” 

Bryaxis, 76. 

Bubastis, 230 n. 9. 

Byzantium, 141; Astrology in, 
170. 


Cadiz, Isis of, 96. 

Caelestis, Jupiter, 128. 

Caelus, 128, 130, 175; Jupiter, 147. 
See also “Sky” and “Zeus Ou- 
ranios.”’ 

Calendars, 175; Alexandrian, 84. 

Caligula, 55, 84, 198. 

Campus Martius, Iseum of, 233 n. 
35 

Cannophori, 56. 

Cappadocia, 112f. 

Caracalla, 84. 

Carbeades, 166. 

Carnuntum, 150. 


Tauro- 


s . ™! 


INDEX. 


Carpentum of Cybele, 225 n. 20. 
Catacombs, 65, 226 n. 23. 
Catasterism, 173. 

Cato, 105. 

Catullus, 49. 

Chaeremon, 273 n. 24. 

Chaldean astrology, 199; cosmol- 
ogy, 133; oracles, 124, 202, 226 n. 
20, 25 3c Ths.55. 

Chaldeans, 105, 122, 124, 170, 187, 
267. 1193 9- 

Chalybes, 147. 

Chastity, 40. 

Cheremon, 87. 

China, 141. 

Chiron, 173. 

Christi, Militia, xxff. 

Christian liturgy, Pagan prayer 
in, 218 n. 17; monotheism, 134; 
theology and astrology, 260 n. 
89. 

Christianity, and heliolatry, 288 

n. 30; and paganism, xvi ff, 
202ff., 288 n. 29; Hellenistic 
influence on, 214 n. 8; opposed 
to astrology, 167; opposed to 
science, 283 n. 17; Resemblance 
to, xxiii; Triumph of, xi, 19, 
8s. See also “Church.” 

Christmas, xvii. 

Church, Fathers of the, xviii, 14; 

militant, xix. 

Cicero, 164. 

Claudius, 55. 

Cleanthes, Hymns of, 217 n. 17. 
Clothing of souls, 269 n. 54. 
Commagene, 112f., 139, 146f. 
Commodus, 39, 149. 

Common origin of ideas, xviii. 
Communions in Phrygia, 69. 
Communities of initiates, Rise of, 

27. 

Community and family, 69. 
Comte, 206. 

Confession of sin, 40; in Baby- 

lotta ester ot) SY: 

Conscience, Influence of Oriental 

religions on, 28, 35ff., 43. 

Constantine, 246 n. 40, 288 n. 30. 
Continence, 157. 

a 


a2 # 


a 


we 


# 


291 


Cosmology, Babylonian, 220 n. 15; 
Chaldean, 133. : 

Coulanges, Fustel de, 99. 

Crete, 147. 

Critodemus, 170. 

Crucifix, Devotion to, 109. 

Cybele, 22, 47ff, 197; and Ana- 
hita,}227 "n... 32°. and, Mithra 
cults combined, 65; Mystics of, 
41. 

Cyprian, St., 282 n. 9. 


Dacia, : 112; 113. 

Dadophori, 97. 

Dagon, 117. 

Damascenus, Jupiter, 111. 

Dante, 180, 276 n. 49. 

Dea Syria, 14, 104. 

Death, Life after, 99, 223, n. 38; 
Spirit released by, 43. See also 
“Immortality.” 

Decalogue, Mithraic, 155. 

Deinvictiaci, 233 n. 4%. 

Delos, Atargatis in, 105, 107; At- 
tis in, 61; Isis in, 8o. 

Demeter and Isis, 76, 89. 

Demetrius of Phalerum, 75. 

Democritus, 189. 

Demonology, 210, 267 n. 39; Per- 
sian, 152ff., 284 n. 19. 

Demons, 138, 266 n. 37, 
76. 

Dendrophori, 56. 

Deterioration of races, 25, 219 n. 6. 

Devotio, 27. 

Dies sanguints, 56, 70. 

Diffusion, Agents of, 24. 

Diis angelis, 266 n. 38. 

Diocletian, 142, 150; and Augus- 
tus, 3; Court of, 141. 

Diodochi, 137. 

Diodorus of Sicily, 52, 240 n. 91; 
of Tarsus, 275 n. 47. 

Diogenes Laertius, 255 n. 66. 

Dionysus and Osiris, 76; and Sa- 
bazius, 48. See also “Sabazius.” 

Dioscuri, 128, 173. 

Discipline, Persian, 155. 

Dispersion of the Jews, 138, 189. 

Distinctions abolished, 28. 


280 n. 


292 


Doliché, 113, 147. 

Dolichenus, Jupiter, 25, 113, 116, 
148, 249 n. 47. 

Domitian, 38, 84, 85. 

Domus aeterna, 240 n. 91. See 
also ‘‘Heaven” and “Souls.” 

Druidism, 20. 

Dualism, Persian, xxi, 142, 151, 
159, 199, 210. 

Dusares, 111. 


Easter, xvili, 70. 

Egypt, 73ff., 112f.; Astrology in, 
251 n. 56; Magi in, 139; Magic 
in, 279 n. 69. 

Egyptian mysteries, Ethics of, go. 

Elagabal, 114, 116. 

Elementa, 206. 

Elephantine, 256 n. 60. 

Elysian Fields, 126. See also 
“Souls.” 

Emesa, 112; Baal of, 114. 

Emotion in Oriental religions, 30, 
34. 

Emperors, Worship of, 22. 

End of the world, 138,209. See also 
“Eschatology.” 

England, Inscription in, 112, 132. 

Epicureans, 203. 

Epicurus, 90. 

Epona, 25. 

Erasmus, 204. 

Eros, Harpocrates and, 90. 

Eryx, Mount, 118. 

Eschatology, 199. 
mortality.” 

Eshmoun, sculapius and, 21. 

Ethics of Egyptian mysteries, 90; 
of Mithraism, 199; Persian, 154. 
See also “Morality.” 

Eugene, 282 n. 9g. 

Evil principle deified, 152. 

Expiatio, 40. 


See also “Im- 


Faith, Reason and, 169, 194; 
Union of science and, 32, 34. 
Farnell, xiii. 
Fatalism, 1709ff., 
Tiberius, 164. 
Fautori impertt sui, 150. 


276 n. 54; of 


- 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS, 


Feasts, 44, 48; Liturgic, 64; Sa- 
cred, 59, 68, 151, 208; Fish at 
sacred, 246 n. 37. 

Fetichism, 51, 127, 131, 210. 

Firdusi, 160. 

Fire, Sacred, 137; Universe to be 
destroyed by, 177, 210. 

Firmicus Maternus, 15, 181, 204, 
205, 282 n. 7, 286 n.. 23. 

Fish;’-1219,)" 248" n. 36, 246"n. 475 
Sacred, 40. 

Flagellations, 40, 56, 104, 222 n. 
ais 

Flavians, 140. 

Formulas as sources, 11, 216 n. 14. 

Foucart, 48, 76. 

Fraternity, 156. See 
hoods.” 

Frazer, xiii. 

Future life, Notions of, 37, 39, 
43; retribution in Egypt, 92. 
See also ‘‘Death” and “Immor- 
tality.” 


*Brother- 


Galatia, Magi in, 139. 

Galerius, 136, 141, 150. 

Galli, 50, 52, 70, 106, 208, 222 
Nn. /37. 

Gallipoli, 237 n. 77. 

Gaul, Cybele in, 57; Influence of 
Orient in, 9, 216 n. 12; Syrians 
in, 108f. 

Gayomart, 227 n. 32. 

Germany, 112. 

Gnosis, 33. 

Gnostic hymns, 217 n. 14; 
233. Ne t4t. 

Gnosticism, 196. 

God, Pagan conceptions of, 207, 
284 n. 19. 

Goethe on the Brocken, 274 n. 41. 

Gontrand, 108. 

Good Friday, 71, 228 n. 42. 

Great Mother, ix, x, xviii, 30, 46ff., 
148, 197, 201, 205f. 

Greece, Cybele in, 57; Isis in, 77, 
80, 230 n. 8. 

Greek influence in Alexandria, 
75f.; philosophy, Dualism in, 
152; religion, 30, 31, 33. 


sects, 


INDEX. 


Gregory of Tours, 108. 
Gruppe, Xili. 


Hadad, 107, 111, 122, 242 n. 10; 
and Jupiter, 123; Etymology 
Of, 189. 

Hadrian, 86, 1109. 

Hammurabi and Marduk, 220 n. 
14. 

Hannibal, 46. 

Hagioi, 121, 249 n. 47. 

Harpist, Song of the, 241 n. 91. 

Harpocrates, 77; and Eros, go. 

Hauran, 8. 

Heaven a city, 284 n. 19; acourt, 
207. See also ‘‘Elysian Fields.” 

Hecate, 282 n. 12. 

Heliogabalus, 114, 120. 

Heliognostae, 233 n. 41. 

Heliolatry and Christianity, 288 n. 
30. 

Heliopolis, 123. 

Heliopolitanus, Jupiter, 111, 249 n. 
47. 

Hellenistic influence on Christian- 
ity, 214 n. 8. 

Henotheism in Syria, 133. 

Hera, 282 n. 11; and Isis, 89; 
sanctad, 249 Nn. 47. 

Hermes, 226 n. 23; Psychopompos, 


59. 
Hermes Trismegistus, 32, 85 ,202, 
234 n. 46. 


Hermetism, 88, 234 n. 53, 250 n. 
49; Influence of, 233 n. 41. 

Herodotus, 96, 147. 

Hierapolis, 123. 

High places, Worship of, 116. 

Hilaria, 57. 

Hinduism, 210. 

Hipparchus, 275 n. 42. 

Homer, 202. 

Honor, 156. 

Horus, 98. 

Hostanes, 184, 189, 193, 
39, 284 n. 109. 

Hymn to Isis, 76, 230 n. 6; as 
sources, II, 217 n. 14; of Sy- 
nesius, 260 n. 89, 

Hymnodes, 97. 


2670? 


295 


Hypsistos, xxi, 62, 128, 227 n. 
20/1252 050.0255) 1. 66.7, See 
also ‘“‘Most High.” 

Hystaspes, 189. 


Iamblichus, 87. 


Jao, 63. 


Tasura, 104. 

Ichthus symbolism, 117. 

Idolatry, Death of, 85; in Syria, 
133; of Hinduism, 210. 

Idols, Consecration of, 278 n. 61, 
Toilet of, 96. 

Ignatius, St., 217 n. 17. 

Immorality of Astarte, 
legends, 203. 

Immortality, 39, 42f., 59, 68, 145, 
209, 238 n. 82; in Egypt, 99; 
in Persia, 159; Semitic ideas on, 
125, 

Industry, Influence of Oriental, 9. 

Initiates, Rise of communities of, 
27; Syrian, 120. 

Initiation, 100. 

Intelligence, Influence of Orien- 
tal religions on, 28, 31ff., 43. 

Intelligent light (sun), 133. 

Inventio of Osiris, 98. 

Invicti, 130. 

Io and Isis, 89. 

Ishtar and Anahita, 146. 

Isis, x, xvii, 22, 55, 73ff., 206; 
and Jo, 89; and Venus, 90; 
Hymns to, 217 n. 14; Influence 
of, 86; Mysteries of, 87, 198; 
Mystics of, xx; Worshipers of, 
nie 

Italy, Syrians in, 106f. 

Ituraea, 112. 


118; of 


Jehovah, x, 257 n. 72; Baal dif- 
ferent from, 131. 

Jerome, 108. 

Jewish colonies in Phrygia, 62. 

Jews, 189. 196; in Asia Minor, 64; 
Monotheism of, 122. 

Judaism, 252 n. 59; and Babylon, 
123; Influence of, 63; Influence 
of Parseeism on, 138, 


294 


Julia: Domna, 213, 251° n2%S7; 
Maesa, 113; Mammea, 113. 
Julian, 70, 154,156, “Zor, 273)'n. 
4, 285 n. 23; the Chaldean, 279 
n. 66; the Theurge, 279 n. 66, 
n.w67. 
Juno, 205. 


Jupiter Caelestis, 128; Caelus, 147; - 


Damascenus, 111; Dolichenus, 
264,225, 476," Tag. Feadad and, 
123; Heliopolitanus, 111; Pro- 
tector, 147. See also ‘‘Zeus.”’ 
Juvenal, 13, 23, 37, 41, 78, 90, 92. 


Kiss of welcome, 137. 
Kizil-Bash peasants, 47. 


Labeo, Cornelius, 6, 255 n. 64. 

Labranda, 147. 

Lactantius Placidus, 143, 204. 

Lagides, 75, 79; Financial sys- 
tem of the, 4. 

Lammens, 262 n. 12. 

Lang, xiii. 

Law in Rome and the Orient, 5. 

Lebanon, 122. 

Licinius, 150. 

Life after death, 99, 223 n. 38. 
See also “Immortality.” 

Lightning, God of, 127 

Lion; 3224 en. ¢2 

Literature as source, 13; Astrol- 
ogy in, 164; in Persia, 138; In- 
fluence of Roman, 20; Influence 
of Oriental, 7. 

Litholatry, 116, 119, 244 n. 209. 

Liturgic repasts, 64. 

Liturgy, 130, 198; Magic in, 278 
n.° 61; Mithraic; ‘2171153 of 
Abydos, 97; Pagan prayer in 
Christian, 218 n. 17; Persian, 
151; Roman, 29. 

Lucian; °13,!14,'34, £64) 4275," 810, 
£2250 207) 

Lucian’s De dea Syria, 
ticity of, 218 n. 109. 

Lucius of Patras, 105. 

Lucretius, 223 n. 39. 

Lustrations, 39. 

Lydia, Magi in, 139. 


Authen- 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Lydus, Johannes, 55. 
Lyons, 216 n. 12. 


Ma, 48, 53, 228 n. 34. 

McCormack, Thomas J., v. 

Macrobius, 204, 208, 287 n. 25. 

Magi, 138; Theology of the, 268 
n. 39. 

Magic, Astrology and, 32, 182ff.; 
Bibliography of, 277 n. 58; in 
Persia, 139; Religion and, 93; 
religious, 185. 

Magna Mater, 46ff. 
“Great Mother.” 

Magousaioi, 144, 146. 

Maiuma, rto. 

Malaga, Syrians in, 108. 

Malakbel, 113, 249 n. 47. 

Maleciabrudus, 242 n. to. 

Manetho, 32, 75, 193. 

Manicheism, 123, 142, 220 n. 15, 
232 n. 26, 244 n. 29. 

Manilius, 168, 178. 

Marduk, Hammurabi and, 220 n. 
14. 

Marius, 106. 

Marna, rio. 

Mar ‘olam, 130. 

Mars, 173. 

Matter, Spirit imprisoned in, 43. 

Mauretania, rr2. 

Maximus of Madaura, 207. 

Maximus of Turin, 204, 282 n. 8, 
283) n.o94, 2841.70. 

Mazdaism, 136; in Asia Minor, 

Pr4s. 

Megalenses, Ludi, 47, 52. 

Melkarth, 243 n. 21. 

Memory, Lake of, 239 n. 89. 

Mén, 62. 

Menotyrannus, Attis, 61. 

Merchants, Influence of, on dif- 
fusion, 24, 79, 105. 

Mercury, 173; Simios and, 123. 

Merovingians, 108. 

Métragyrtes, 5%. 

Michel, Charles, xxv, 213 n. I. 

Militia Christi, xxff. 

Militia, Sacred, xx, 27. 

Militias, Religious, 213 n. 6. 


See also 


INDEX. 


Minucius Felix, 84. 

Mithra, x, 22, 84, 142ff.; and 
Apollo, 155; and Attis, 69; and 
Cybele cults combined, 65; and 
Shamash, 146; Mysteries of, 33, 
126, 140, 269 n. 54; Mystics of, 
41; Purity of, 157. 

Mithradates Eupator, 135, 144; 
Toxicology of, 280 n. 73. 

Mithraism, Advantages of, 159; 
Ethics of, 199; not Zoroastrian- 
ism, 150. 

Mithreum near Trapezus, 262 n. 
16. 

Mohammedans, Magic of the, 278 
n. 65. 

Monotheism, 288 n. 30; Christian, 
134; in Syria, 133; Parseeism 
closest to, 150. 

Morality, in the Oriental mys- 
teries, xxii, 44; in Egyptian re- 
ligion, 81; in Roman religion, 
35; Laxity of, 42; of paganism, 
209; unrewarded, 37. See also 
“Ethics.” 

Mosaic Law, xxi. 

Most-High, 134, 
‘‘Hypsistos.” 

Mutilations, 4o. 

Mysteries, Alexandrian, 88, 99, 
240 n. 91; Charm of, 29; Egyp- 
tian, 237 n. 77; Egyptian, Theol- 
ogy of, 90; Hellenic, 214 n. 8, 
221 n. 23; in Syria, 120; of all 
the Oriental religions, 205; of 
Isis, 87). 142,. 258) ne’ 79,, of 
Mithra, 33, 126, 140, 142, 199, 
269 n. 54, 286 n. 23; Oriental, 
xxii, 44; Phrygian, 51. 

Mystic rites, 39f., 51. 

Mythology, Roman, 35. 


145. See also 


Nama Sebesio, 16. 

Names, Barbarian, 
Theophorous, 148. 

Naples, Syrians in, 108. 

Warses, 136. 

Natalis Invicti, xvii, 228 n, 42. 

Nature worship, 206. 

Navigium Isidis, 97. 


279 n. 69; 


295 


Nechepso, 163. 

Nectanebos, 86. 

Neo-Platonism, ix, 
70, 124, 152, 
29, 279 n. 66. 

Neo-Pythagoreanism, 152. 

Nephtis, 230 n. 9. 

Nero, 87, 106; initiated by Tiri- 
dates, 263 n. 16. 

Nicocreon, 79. 

Nietzsche, 177. 

Nigidius Figulus, 164. 


xxiv, 34, 45, 
188, 201, 244 n. 


Nile, 205. 
Nimes, 216 n. 12; Isis in, 83. 
Noldeke, 258 n. 80; on authen- 


ticity of De dea Syria, 218 n. 
19. 
Numidia, 113. 


Oiympus a republic, 284 n. 19; 
Sacrifices on, 143. 

Omnipotens et omniparens, 129. 

Omnipotentes, 63, 226 n. 30. 

Orchoé, 122. 

Organism, Universe an, 207. 

Orient, Law in the, 5 f.; Menace 
of, 2ff.; Triumph of, 26. 

Ormuzd, 152, 190, 199. 

Ornatrices, 94, 96. 

Orpheus, 101, 202. 

Orphic hymns, 217 n. 14. 

Osiris, 237 n. 77; and Attis, 69; 
Deceased identified with, 99; 
the judge, ogof.; Inventio of, 
98; Serapis and, 74ff. 

Ostia, Syrians in, 108. 

Otho and Vitellius, 164. 


Pagan theology and Christianity, 
288 n. 29. 

Paganism, Chaotic condition of, 
wis Kaducation*ing 283" n,.° £75 
Essence of, 131; Latin, 197; 
Morality of, 209; Semitic, 116; 
Syrianyi 12%. 

Palmyta,) 112... 011S,. 1231.,5. 252, 0: 
59. 

Pan and Attis, 69. 

Pannonia, 112; Syrians in, 108. 

Pantheism, 33; Solar, 134. 


296 


Pantheos, 70. 

Papas. See “Attis.” 

Paphos, Conical stone at, 116. 

Parseeism closest to monotheism, 
150; Influence of, on Judaism, 
138. 

Pastophori, 94. 

Penance, 4of.; in Syria, 249 n. 46. 

Pergamum, 47ff. 

Perseus and Andromeda, 173. 

Persia, 135ff.; Magic of, 189. 

Pessinus, 47ff.; 148, 197. 

Petilia, 239 n. 89. 

Petosiris the priest, 163. 

Phallophories of Abydos, 78. 

Philo of Alexandria, 230 n. 11. 

Philo of Biblos, 115, 122. 

Philosophers, 201. 

Philosophy, 33. 

Phoenicia, 122. 

Phrygia, 46ff.; 
Penance in, 40. 

Pigeon, 117. 

Pilgrimages, 46. 

Pine, Sacred, 56f. 

Piraeus, Attis in, 61. 

Plagiarism, 11. 

Plants, Sacred, in Egypt, 78. 

Plato, 265 n. 34. 

Platonists, 14. 

Pliny, 279 n. 69. 

Plutarch, 14, 75, 87, 90, 142, 152, 
190. 

Pluto chief of demons 266 n. 37. 

Polemicists as source, 15. 

Pompeii, Frescoes of, 235 n. 58; 
Iseum at, 81. 

Pompey, 143. 

Porphyry, 93, 95, 152. 

Posidonius of Apamea, 164. 

Pozzuoli, 111; Serapeum of, 81; 
Syrians in, 108. 

Praetextatus, 208, 211; Catacombs 
of, 65, 226 n. 23; Epitaph of, 
286 n. 23; Wife of, 282 n. 13. 

‘Priesthood, 41; in Egypt, 94; Ori- 
ental 32. 

Proclus, 228 n. 41. 

Prophetes, 94. 

Prudentius, 66, 204, 282 n. 5. 


Magi in, 139; 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Psychological crisis, 27. 

Ptolemy, 164, 170, 182. 

Ptolemy Euergetes, 79. 

Ptolemy Soter, 74, 79. 

Purification, 64; in Mazdaism, 156. 

Purity, 209; Conception of, 234 
n. 49, 249 n. 46; in Egyptian 
ritual, 91; in Syria, 121; of 
Mithra, 157. 

Pyrethes, 144. 

Pythoness, 106. 


Querolus, 287 n. 25. 


Rameses II, 86. 

Ramsay, 225 n. 7. 

Rationalism of Greece, 31. 

Reason and faith, 169, 194. 

Refrigerium, 102. 

Reinach, xiii. 

Religion, and magic, 93; Roman, 
28. 

Religions, Invasion of the _ bar- 
barian, 10, 19, 22; Parliament 
of, xiii. 

Renan, x, 1, 160. 

Repasts. See ‘‘Feasts.” 

Responsibility, Collective, 36. 

Resurrection, 138. 

Reward and punishment, 37, 92, 
154. 

Rhodes, Attis in, 61. 

Rites, Mystic, 39f., 51. 

Ritual, Egyptian, 93; Pharaonic, 
236, 1. (70: 

Ritualistic ablutions, 208. 

Roman liturgy, 29; mythology, 35; 
religion, 28. 

Rome, Isis in, 83; Private law of, 
¢ . 

Rufinus, 85. 


Sabaoth, 63. 

Sabaziasts, xxi, 226 n. 23. 

Sabazius, 22, 59, 64f. Dionysus 
and, 48. See also “Dionysus.”’ 

Sabbatists, xxi. ' 

Sabians, 250 n. 49. 

Sacerdotal character of Oriental 
civilizations, 3r, 


INDEX, 


Sacrifice, Human, 119. 

Sagittarius, 173. 

Salvation, xxiii, 33, 40, 43. 

Sanctuary, Right of, 250 n. 49. 

Sanctus, (Mithra), 157. 

Sassanides, 135, 140; 
the, 141. 

Satan, Ahriman and, 153, 266 n. 
36. 

Saturn, 172; Baal and, 21. 

Saviour, 223 n. 36. 

Scaevola, 6, 35. 

Science, 43; and faith, 32, 34; 
and the priesthood, 32; Chris- 
tians opposed to, 283 n. 17; 
Magic a, 183f. 

Sciences, Astrology queen of, 162. 

Scipio Nasica, 47. 

Scopas, 76. 

Seleucides, 62, 121, 128, 138. 

Seleucus, 256 n. 67; Callinicus, 
79. 

Semele and Isis, 89. 

Semitic paganism, 116; religions, 
Diffusion of the, 111ff. 

Seneca, 217 n. 17. 

Senses, Influence of Oriental re- 
ligions on, 28ff., 43. 

Septizonia, 164. 

Serapis,- 'x,.-22, .73ff., 126; 
of demons, 266 n. 37. 
Serpent sacred to Asculapius, 173. 

Set, 98. 

Severi, 140, 167, 196. 

Severus of Antioch, 233 n. 33. 

Sextus Empiricus, 167. 

Shamash and Mithra, 146. 

Showerman, xiv, 225 n. -15. 

Sibylline oracles, 233 n. 34. 

Sibyls, 46. 

Sicily, Slave revolution in, 105. 

Siderial immortality, 254 n. 64, 
worship, 133, 25I n. 57, 254 n. 
64. See also “Stars.” 

Signa Memphitica, 233 n. 35. 

Simios and Mercury, 123. 

Sky, 208. See “Caelus.” 

Slave revolution in Sicily, 105. 

Sol invictus, 114, 146, 205; sanc- 
tissimus, 249 Nn. 47. 


Court of 


chief 


as Hh 


Soldiers of fate, xx; Faith of 
Syrian, 112; Persian cult spread 
by, 149. 

Souls, Abode of, in the stars, 125, 
159,260) nese 54) 5 287, ni253 
Abode of, in the earth, 159; 
Clothing of, 269 n. 54. 

Sources, 11ff. 

Spear, Sacred, 67. 

Species, Variation of, 25. 

Spencer, Herbert, 222 n. 34. 

Spirit imprisoned in matter, 43. 

Spring of water, 239 n. 90. 

Stars, 129; Deified, 199; Soul in 
the, 125, 159, 269 n. 54, 287 
wise: 

Steer the author of creation, 68. 
Stoics, 14, 148, 167, 171, 177, 180, 
214 n. 6; Philosophy of, xx. 

Stolistes, 94, 96, 97. 

Stones, Worship of, 116. See 
also “Litholatry.” 

Strabo, 32, 122, 145,'247 n. 41. 

Strategus, God a, 214 n. 6. 

Sulla, 54, 8r. 

Sun, Supreme, 133. See also “Sol 
invictus.”’ 

Superstition, 36, 277 n. 58. 

Supplicium, The term, 219 n. 6. 

Symmachus, xxiv, 204, 211. 

Sympathy, 171, 194. 

Synesius, Hymns of, 260 n. 89. 

Syria, Isis in, 79. 

Syrian goddess, 14, 104. 

Syrians in Italy, 106f, 


abuses 1 20sTs 7. 

Taurobolium, xviii, 66, 198, 206, 
208; compared to baptism, 70. 

Tetrabiblos, 170, 182, 271 n. 5. 

Thasos, Attis in, 61. 

Thaumaturgus, 188. 

Thebes, Sepulchers of, 99. 

Themistius, 200. 

Theodore of Mopsuestia, 153. 

Theology, 33; and astrology, 175, 
260 n. 89; of the Egyptian mys- 
teries, 90; of the magi, 268 n. 


39- 


298 


Theophilus, 85; Miniature of, 232 
n. 32. 

Theophorous names, 148. 

Thessaly, Witches of, 186. 

‘Thoth,*\32;904j,123 700.8 77. 

Thunder-god, 256 n. 67. 

Tiberius, 39, 180; Fatalism of, 
164; persecutes priests of Isis, 
83. 

Time, 35; Deified, 150, 273 n. 36. 

Timotheus the Eumolpid, 51, 75, 
99, 229 n. 4. 

Tin road, 216 n. 12. 

Tiridates, Nero initiated by, 263 
n. 16. 

Toilet of the idol, 96. 

Tonsure, 235 n. 58. 

Totem, 48. 

Trapezus, Mithreum near, 262 n. 
16. 

Trees, Sacred, 48, 56, 78, 116. 

Triads, 250 n. 50. 

Trinity, Egyptian, 77; Syrian, 123. 

Tyche, 179; and Isis, 89. 

Tylor, xiii. 

Tyrannos, 61. 


Universal church, 211. 
Universe, 207. 


Valens, 200, Vettius, 168, 171. 
Varro, 38, 202. 
Vedanta, 210. 


THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS. 


Venus, 173; Atargatis and, 123; 
Isis and, go. 

Viminacium, 267 n. 38. 

Vincentius, Grave of, 65. 

Vitellius, Otho and, 164. 

Vogiié, de, 8. 

Vohumano, 145. 


Water, Spring of, 239 n. 90; 
Worship of, 116. 

Wissowa, xiii. 

Xenophanes, 203. 

Yahveh Zebaoth, 64. See also 


“Jehovah.” 
Vazatas, 346) ,148,. £52. 


Zachariah the Scholastic, 
bier eens Wise he tep mee cont 

Zeno, 176. 

Zenobia, 252 n. 59. 

Zervan Akarana, 150. 

Zeus Ammon, 230 n. 9; Bronton, 
226 n. 24; Keraunios, 256 n. 
67; Oromasdes, 147; Ouranios, 
128; Stratios, 265 n. 29. See 
also “Jupiter.” 

Zoolatry, 119. See also “Animals.” 

Zoroaster, 138, 145, 184, 189, 193, 
269 n. 54, 277 Nn. 57, 279 Nn. 
70; Votaries of, 160. 

Zoroastrianism, Mithraism not, 150. 

Zosimus, 277 n. 57. 


283 xn. 





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